The post about the military SM 300 auction got me thinking about mil watches generally. A lot of collectors who have issued watches are presumably loving where the market is right now, although from a pursue and collect perspective I would always prefer that prices stay low and rational. Sadly, the market controls itself. Anyhow, I was at the bank today and pulled out these two distant cousins, one issued and one not, for a quick phone pic . Let's see what you guys have in the military department.

 

Mr. Bulova. an A17A from a 1959 contract and Mr. Elgin from a BuShips contract of about 1942.....


both small watches, but as you can see I have skinny-ass arms so they fit me well enough!

 

Nice pairs... The Cairelli is on my short list should the opportunity present itself. And those canteen Elgins are quite oddly cool.

Here are a couple of mine...

 

Agree with pricing sentiment. That Zenith is a nice watch and the Autavia's have always been a cool watch. m

 

Love those Type 20s.

 

A11
1943

 

Elgin Type A-17A

 

Well nice watches all. Here are my mine.

 

A few of mine: Bulova A17 Navigator

WWW Cyma

RAF Omega 2292, aluminum case

Benrus MIL W 3818, ca1964


And just won an auction for 2 "military" watches, one is likely an Elgin A11. Hope I get lucky!!

 

Recent arrival!

 

Since my collections is really, really, small. The only military I have.

 

Can't beat these Hamilton's for form and function.

Your Navigator watch was issued to US Army and Navy pilots.

My Navigator watch was issued to Canadian and British Air Force pilots very early in WWII only, movement dates to 1942. Uncommon.

 

I like the British/Canadian issue with the 12hr dial, but still waiting to find one at a price I can afford. They seems to not show up much and at a premium. Oh well.......one day ....... maybe one day.

 

Is the dial and back pictures of the same watch? Because the case back shows engraving for a US-issued watch and a fiscal 1952 (it's kind of hard to read) serial number.

Tom

 

Same watch, as it came to me.

 

I like the "Censored for Navy Bureau of Aeronautics"
We would show you the watch but then we would have to kill you.

 

That's an aircraft clock they are censoring

 

It was only censored in the adverts during the war years as it was considered a war time security issue. Here's what they looked like.

Picture captured from: http://www.hamiltonchronicles.com/2014/09/wwii-hamilton-h-37500-elapsed-time-clock.html
Another great military I can't afford at the moment.

 

Although not a Hamilton like in the above ad here is my WWII US Navy
Waltham A11 Aircraft Clock. It's marked "Waltham A11" on the dial but blacked out
to meet wartime military specs.

These make cool desk clocks and the clock below looks awesome on a wall- I have it next to my desk
It is a WWII US Navy ship's clock made by Chelsea Clock Company located right outside Boston
This company is still in business

Here is a military watch-an experimental "mock up' made by a combination of MB Microtec and Stocker and Yale
(who made the SANDY watches for the US military in the 1980's + 1990's).
In 1988 the US Army found that the SANDY 184 watches being issued to US Army troops were emitting an unusually large amount of radioactivity. This was because the hands and markings on the dial were coated with traditional tritium phosphorescent paint. As a result S+Y was to be deleted from the list of companies able to supply the US Army with wrist watches. With their profitable business in jeopardy the President of S+Y (Jim Bickman) contacted the Swiss company Mb-Microtec for assistance. Mb- Microtec had been making glass tubes filled with tritium gas for compasses made by S+Y and supplied to the US Army. S+Y decided to develop a new wrist watch which would use these same tritium vials on the hands and numerals of a new watch. These tubes produced no radioactivity but could still illuminate the hands and numerals of the watch. In 1989 this became the experimental SANDY 5900 Type 3 watch. The prototypes were successfully tested in 1990 and accepted in 1991 as military equipment by the Department of Defense. The Type 3 was a battery driven watch which had more accuracy than the old manual wind movements
From this prototype the SandY P 5900 Type 3 was developed and became the first issued military watch from the collaboration of Stocker & Yale and Mb-Microtec. It was equipped with Mb-Microtec H3-illumination. Mb-Mictotec later supplied the tritium vials for Marathon watches and now makes the Luminox.
The 5900 had a quartz movement, but this watch is a manual wind 184 movement and case with tritium vials in the hands and numerals. It has the green case like the US Army issued models from the 1980's