Anyone have a historical watch?

At Tateyama:
First Weems ordered 1934.
Bomber goes into operation 1935.
Bombers first flight over water 1937!

Type 98 bomber is described in above posts. It was the very first over seas bomber developed at Tateyama 1 year after the celestial navigation watch Longines Weems were ordered. These would have to be the ref 5350. We know about 1 that was invoiced in 1937.


Source is from Seikosha Book. Author is Sadao Rugo

I found it. Proof Tateyama Air Group ordered Longines Weems. This is a museum on the Tateyama Air Base.



Useful search keywords：
特別攻撃隊
神風
館山海軍
館山海上自衛隊
館山海軍航空隊 史料館
台南航空券
台南海軍
台南海軍航空隊
臺南海军航空队

The IJN Weems converted to a pocket watch reminds me of this watch.
I hope someone in the Chiba area will visit that museum and try to find out if anyone
knows what was the reason for removing the lugs. I think no one knows why it
was done for the below watch either.

There is a new kind of big pilot wristwatch I have never seen before with the dark brown leather band and white dial.
It's huge, the same size as the Seikosha Tensoku watches next to it.

This Zero fighter pilot has a similar white dialed touneau cased watch.
He is a small person, but the watch he has also has a pocket watch crown like the museum mystery big pilot.

Useful search keywords for researching Kamikaze and Imperial Japanese Navy：
大日本海軍
帝国海軍
特別攻撃
特別攻撃隊
特別攻撃機 桜花
神風
館山海軍
館山海上自衛隊
館山海軍航空隊 史料館
台南航空隊
台南海軍
台南海軍航空隊
臺南海军航空队
旧日本軍
ロンジン　ウィットナー　ウィームス
天測時計
拉包爾
航空　史料館
大江時計台航空史料室

Is it an image of an IJN Weems?

Some of you on MWR may know I have been working on finding the source of this image that
has what appears to be one of the best images I have found of a Longines Weems on an IJN Pilot.
You may argue that the image is too poor to know what it is. The watch shown is huge and the
center of the watch is a darker color. The only other watch remotely resembling it is a Lindberg.


I have finally found where the image came from. Unfortunately, I haven't found a higher resolution image of it yet.


Autotranslated



I don't know the name of the pilot that is wearing the watch. However, we know the exact squadron.
And we may have all the names of the people in the picture. Keizo Sasai built a monument for his
comrades. This squadron was part of the Yokosuka Naval District, which was over the Tateyama Air Group.
So far other than being part of the same vast naval district, I do not know how the watch got to the
Kamikaze Special Attack Corps 3rd Ryūko Squadron.

They may all have been a part of the Taiwan Kokutai so if true that part still seems to be consistent with the
other big pilot watches seen so far meaning all the Seikosha and possible Longines Weems seem to
have been in the Sino-Japanese war over "Occupied Japan" or in other words Manchuria/Machukou.





Made out of fabric and wood, with a top speed of just 120 knots and painted bright yellow. You had to be at the back of the graduating class to be assigned to this squadron.

Don't underestimate the determination of a Trainer Biplane!

After a while, just having an Imperial Japanese Navy Longines Weems is not enough. You want a part of a plane and it has to be a plane that didn't just get shot down the first day it flew. I found out there was such a plane in California for a while as part of a 10 year restoration project.



This plane was originally built on September 1942 and it was painted light grey. This was one of the earlier Mitsubishi Zero "Zeke" Model 32, or A6M3. This was a successor the the famous A6M2 flown by the legendary Tainan Kokutai that had the top Aces of the Sino-Japanese and Pacific War. The serial number of this plane is 3148. According to Ron Cole who was one of the first to purchase the wreckage, serial number 3148 ( Tail S-112) was given a Shinto Religious christening in Manchuria. So this plane was in Sino-Japanese war along with my Longines.



This is the identification plate for 3148.


The A6M3 had more horsepower, but it is interesting that this newer plane still did not capture the hearts of the IJN pilots who still preferred the A6M2.

Below was the home base for 3148.

https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/a6m3/3148.html


So what is so interesting about 3148? It was piloted by Isamu Miyazaki.







https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/japanese-a6m3-mod-32-zero-colors-parts-art.39321/

Click on the below to zoom in and see the restoration story of 3148.
https://warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/legend-flyers-restoration-update.html

https://warbirdsnews.com/warbird-restorations/tale-fighter-ron-cole.html


Crazy as it sounds, these guys were only about 10 minutes away from my work. I saw very little to doubt the authenticity
and the history of the scrap so I bought one.

This is also interesting. This plane may have flow along side the Tainan Air Group.
It was assigned to the Chitose Air Group that merged with the Tainan Air Group. Was it all of them or some of them?
Tainan Air Group of course had Japan's Top Fighter Aces. All of the Chitose Air Group and Tainan Air Group flew in the battles over Rabaul.

I can't figure out what that object is. I am guessing it isn't an instrument, but a cloth good luck bag? His flight suit button looks like a knob or lens element, but is don't think it is a sextant.

I did find more information on Miyazaki.
He was with the 252 Air Group and the 343 Air Group.



In this picture of the 343 AG, he is in the second row from the front and fourth from the left.
343 Air Group was of course also known as the Genda's Blade.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/408409980560636/

Hard to tell, looks a little bit like one of the two on the right picture.

There is another possibility that it more interesting. Certainly matches the skills and experience expected for a Weems owner. This person is also supposedly in the museum photograph with the big pilot that looks like a Weems. And he is on the monument, which means he was one of the seven last remaining Ryūko Kamikaze pilots and an officer which gives him the rights to sit in a folding chair. The highest ranking always sits in the center of the first row.




At this late stage in the Pacific War, all of the junior aviators barely have the skills to take off and land. Their training has been cut by two years to only essential flying skills. They have no combat training or advanced navigation skills. Junior pilots must follow a leader to guide them or the whole group gets lost.

Having navigational skills over water means the person has to know celestial navigation and is therefore a veteran pilot.

I can speculate that Mimura may have earlier in Taiwan been outfitted like this other pilot with a Seikosha for recon missions.