We all know eBAY is a true testament to human creativity.... Here is a seller who has quite a number of items to which he has add fake engravings to "enhance" the value of the item. A number of examples are

A POC fake Omega pocket watch awarded to in the 1936 olympics. Please pardon the misspelled names of a few cities on the dial...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Omega-World...1549347?pt=Pocket_Watches&hash=item4acc15a0a3Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

A Zenith pocket watch with fake markings hoping to make the watch appears as an item connected to the German U534.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Important-h...3294933?pt=Pocket_Watches&hash=item2ec88ec355Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

A little extra research into what a class IXC/40 U-boat should look like would have been helpful

 

Quite, quite astonishing that in the intervening 70 years of use, not even the slightest indication of the Submarine outline, detail, or shading, has rubbed off, the soft 18k gold.......and yet the glass covered dial looks like it has been hit by shrapnel.....Amazing.

I might almost, have expected to see Karl Dönitz's initials, inside the case, perhaps with a lock of hair ???

It could almost have been manufactured yesterday......Not that, of course, it was.

 

Buying watches from Bulgaria? That makes buying watches from Italy sound as safe as buying second hand cars from the Pope himself....

 

gold ?

 

It looks like the engraver googled IXC type 40, and used this computer side profile as his inspiration:

http://www.uboat.net/types/ixc40.htm

but perhaps he should have worked from the scale model in the museum:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swampy_bogtrotter/3354334715/

 

or plan drawings for this class:

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll310/arnd278/IXC40-Generalplan.jpg

 

This ridiculous flight of historical whimsy, combined with mind boggling, creative marketing, is even more compounded by the fact, the U534 in her entire active service never, ever, sank another ship !

She was a training vessel.

So quite what the 'Crew Award Watch' was actually awarded for entirely eludes me ????? - Getting sunk off Denmark in May '45 perhaps

Incidentally, that 'Unterseeboot 534' now resides at Birkenhead, in Liverpool, where she has been restored, after salvage, and is now open as a museum.

One of only 4 surviving U boats on display, in the world.

 

Should make for a very interesting visit.
Another museum that is worth visiting is the the U505 in Chicago (also a class IXC).
I have also had the opportunity to dive on the U352 and U701. While these are impressive dives the boats are deteriorated and not much is left.

U-352




And the obligatory watch shot

 

very good to see another helson lover..... excellent watches ! kind regards. achim

 

I really like the Helson Sharkmaster 1000. Very substantial watch. At some point I would like to get my hands on the inspiration of this watch, the Omega Seamaster 1000. But I doubt I would take that one diving