Dirty Dozen Omega - Any saw combat?

E Eldridge

A bit like the omega ref 2179 and 2384 US army stamped watches,that were delivered very late in the war.

bigbug1964

The answer is yes…

bb64

bigbug1964

Well, this is an exceedingly rare ‘Dirty Dozen‘ W.W.W.’s OMEGA with KNIL (Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger, or Royal Netherlands East Indies Army) markings.

K.N.I.L. engraved watches, documented from IWC, JLC, Longines and Omega are presumably the rarest of the “Dirty Dozen” watches, with less than a handful pieces known so far.

The K.N.I.L. were part of the Dutch army stationed in the East Indies during their occupation in the 50’s. It is considered as quite certain, that these watches were delivered to the Netherlands Army towards the tail-end of WWII, when Britain was left with a significant surplus of watches at the end of the war and they were keen to sell some of them.

The OMEGA watch, Model Ref. Y10946, Cal. 30T2, 15J, ca. 1944, in particular, was found near by the city of Madiun, East Java, now Indonesia, which was in former times one of the KNIL strategical bases located in the region. There were a lot of historical battles around Madiun in the end 40’s, because it is an area located between Yogyakarta as the capital of the Republic of Indonesia at that time and Surabaya as a very strategic military base belonging to the Dutch in the easternmost region of the island of Java.

In more then 25 years of collecting I’ve read only a few times about them in collector forums and this is the only known to me W.W.W. Omega, that I’ve ever seen in real with KNIL markings.

bigbug1964

I iht

Wow, what a collection!

bigbug1964

W.W.W. watches in Service...

British military watches, especially the famous Dirty Dozen models, were issued as essential “combat” and “service” tools for soldiers in WWII and beyond - they prioritized durability, legibility, and reliability for use in field missions and military operations. Most Dirty Dozen watches were originally fitted with radium dials.

In the 1960s and 1970s, only a few had their dials replaced by promethium “P dials” in the course of routine military maintenance to address safety and luminous performance.

Promethium dials can be identified by a “P” marking and are exceptionally rare - used only during a brief transition period due to their quick luminosity decay. This means that surviving Dirty Dozen models with genuine promethium “P dials” are limited, known appearing in watches from Buren, Eterna, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lemania and Grana. Their rarity results directly from the limited period of promethium use and the specific service circumstances in which dials were swapped.

In summary: “P dials” are not a collector’s upgrade, but a reflection of military field service history and real-world maintenance practices in the British forces after WWII.

I iht

Once again learned something new today! I knew nothing about the P Dial. Any reason why they didn't just use tritium?

bigbug1964

Promethium was used before tritium in military watches, because it became available as a safer, low-energy beta emitter after radium was phased out in the 1960s, but before tritium was widely accessible and practical for watchmaking.

Promethium was essentially a "quick fix": it was less radioactive than radium and easy to deploy, but it had a short half-life (about 2.6 years), so the luminescence faded quickly.

Tritium, while safer and much longer-lasting (with a half-life of 12.3 years), became feasible in watchmaking only after reliable production and handling technologies were developed. Once tritium became more available and affordable, it replaced promethium as the standard for luminous watch dials due to its durability and safety advantages.

In summary: promethium was an interim solution, used until tritium was industrially and economically viable for large-scale use in military watches.

bigbug1964

There is currently to my knowledge no documented evidence that Omega itself used promethium dials (marked with “P”) either in their commercial production or as official Ministry of Defence (MoD) military service replacements.

While some other Dirty Dozen brands such as Lemania, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Buren. Eterna and Grana, mentioned already before, have known examples with service “P dials,” Omega does not appear in reference sources or military dial archives as having watches redialed with promethium.

Most Omega Dirty Dozen and other British-issued watches are only known with original radium or (after 1960s servicing) later tritium dials, not with promethium. So, "P dials" from Omega remain undocumented and, if they exist, would be true anomalies.