Military Omega?

As I peruse World's Largest Garage Sale, lately looking at 30t2 watches, I not infrequently run across a description that includes "Military Syle."

The below are a couple examples:





And





In the case of the second example, I notice the collar with tabs surrounding the movement. I notice this collar on numerous other watches advertised as military/trench watches (Omega and otherwise.) The collar seems to at least represent somewhat of a theme in military/trench watches, but, as in the first example, some of these watches advertised as "military" seem to have no characteristic separating them from any other older watch.

two questions:

1. What is the purpose of the tabbed collar device surrounding the movement? Is the presence of this collar a strong indication that the watch is made to military specs.

2. Is there any standard set of characteristics that identify a watch as "military" that is generally accepted as such in the horological world?, or, is "military" just generally bandied about in association with any watch that may have been manufactured in war time, e.g. WWI or WWII?

Best,

Short answer : No. To both.

Here is one of the treads about this interesting topic:

Military Omega's. | Omega Forums

Thanks for the responses.

I have seen, and there are a few in the "Military Omega's" thread, watches with the upward directed arrow markings. Does this marking, if it is not forged, necessarily indicate an RAF watch?

Example:



Best

Wayne

Thanks, that is what I figured. It is helpful. In my own thinking, "military provenance" requires that a government purchased the item for issuance to military personnel. I guess I should have indicated this in my initial post.

Is the forging of this triangle a common thing with Omega watches?

Best,

Wayne

Omega did put the military arrow, aka "Broad Arrow", on the dial of their James Bond 007 Seamaster. 🤦
However, this symbol should only be used on genuine British military watches (MoD Ministry of Defence).
The letters AM would stand for Air Ministry ( RAF established on April 1, 1918 ).

Thanks for the great additional responses. Being an old sailor, my interest is peaked by naval memorabilia. It seems to be a cloister within a cloister. "Rare," to an even greater degree.

To being more precise : the WW2 Omega Mil. Watches from the early 1940's had a alloy mid case. Prone to break the long lugs... Mvmts were fine, but cases were not . Therefore new steel cases were made in the UK , the dials cleaned and repainted and these military Omega's re-issued by the MoD in 1956. Lume was Radium ; that typical greenish colour....

Couple points

- There is no definition of “military style” but more often than not, they have black dials or trench cases.
- A military watch is a watch that was either used by the military, or issued to military personnel. Most of the time (95%) they have engraving to the rear with information on the stock code, serial number, NATO stores number, etc, showing that they were “ issued”.
- A watch that could be bought for civilian use identical to the military issued one would not be considered military.
- the broadarrow / pheon is only for British issued watches (actually any British government issued military property) but many other countries issued watch that would be considered military (but lack the arrow because they are not British)
- as watches were used in service and then repaired etc, part swaps and mixed components are common. Manufacturers also supplied replacement dials to get rid of radium lume.
- it’s tricky world that requires some research before you buy. In Omega World, the most desirable issued watch is probably the 165.024 Seamaster 300. A more accessibly priced option is the Omega ‘53 - good chunky watches with more modern day wrist presence. Both of there are British issued. There are 5 or 6 different Omega references that were issued that come to mind.
- the best website is the Military Watch Resource - MWR - if it’s not on there it’s because it isn’t discovered yet. Best reference books are by Konrad Kirim - he does a British watches one and a German watches one.

Thanks. I will check out MWR.

Best,

Wayne