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jaegodylan
·Hello Folks
Attempting to put together a little bit of a reference for a quite rare WWW Omega variant. The HS10 Royal Navy Supervisors watch. If you happen to own one or know anything about them please contribute to the thread here.
We have a page running at MWR for it as it is of course a military watch. LINK HERE
The information for these is relatively scarce but they were apparently used by the Royal Navy and their diver supervisors. They are the same watch as the WWW Dirty Dozen but most seem to have M.O.D dial variant ( some keep their original WWW dial) and the case backs are inscribed with the Royal Navy designation H.S. 10. H.S. Being short for Hydrographic Standard.
Some records indicate production number or issued watches somewhere between 389-307 total in use between 1945 and 1965.
While the W.W.W. watches are meant to be splashproof or water resistant they certainly are not waterproof.
Terry Andrews at MWR states
“What doesn't make sense is the Omega WWW remarked HS 10 watch, it certainly isn't a divers watch in the true sense ... They would have been perfectly suitable for the dive supervisor's role by meeting the 'splash-proof' requirement mentioned in B.R. 2806.
Thinking about the Omega HS10, I think it unlikely it was used for shallow water dives because the depth rating of the WWW was 20FT (info thanks to Ken Gordon).
Is it fair to say that MOD had two classifications for the H.S.10.
H.S. 10 - Dive Supervisors (Omega WWW)
H.S. 10 CD - Clearance Divers (Rolex 6150,6538, A/6538 & 5512)
It appears MOD differentiated between the Omega WWW HS10 and the A/6538 and 5512s by marking the divers watches HS10 CD.
We can deduce some sense of timing of the introduction of HS10 and HS11 marked watches by referring to the ROG workshop reports mentioned in the thread below. Martin mentions in post #2 that earlier references were for the ATP alone.
53 report - 38 watertight wrist watches mentioned
54 & 55 reports - HS10 and HS11 watches mentioned
Last mention of HS10/11 appears to be in the 54 - 55 ROG report. There's no mention in the 55 - 56 ROG report, which is also the last report accessible online.”
These apparent M.O.D. dials seem to be quite similar to the ones on the Omega 53 Fat Arrow RAF watches. The logo and circled T are nearly identical. The seconds dial has a number count in the outer ring.
The H.S. 10 is shown on the left and a Fat Arrow on the right.
An apparent photo of a diver supervisor (supervising diver Buster Crabb) in action with what could be the HS10 Omega on his wrist:
Some information from Finest-Hour on an old listing: LINK HERE
““The wonderful Omega for sale would have originally started life like any other standard W.W.W. wristwatch.
However, the Omega for sale is considerably rarer and special still due to it having been subsequently re-issued to the Royal Navy for the Diving Survey, most likely for use as a Dive Supervisors wristwatch. This is indicated by the additional markings of H.S 10 on the reverse of the case back. “H.S.10” refers to the Royal Navy stores reference for a “Divers Wristwatch”.
According to records held by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), the Dive Supervisors wristwatch was to be used for supervision and should be splash-proof but not pressure resistant.
The watch features an interesting MOD replacement dial, which bears a striking resemblance to the replacement “Fat Arrow” tritium dials fitted to Omega RAF pilots watches at the beginning of the 1950s.
Very few of these watches are thought to exist which makes the wonderful example for sale a truly rare and special find.”
Their images:
Terry Andrews over at MWR combed the archives of the Royal Observatory Greenwich and found some mentions on numbers of them made:
http://www.royalobservatorygreenwich...p?article=1278
“1953 Report - Chronometers:
38 watertight wrist watches, and in another paragraph;
The water-test apparatus on loan from Messrs. Rotherham and Sons Ltd., London, for the testing of watertight watches was returned on 27th November 1952.
Two improved models, of larger size, constructed in the Observatory workshop have been in use since that date. A small model of simpler design, presented by
the Rolex Watch Company, is also in use.
1954 Report - Chronometers:
389 wrist watches (HS10 and HS11), and in another paragraph; 307 HS10/11
1955 Report - Chronometers:
163 wrist watches (HS10 and HS11) are rating and ready for issue, and in the following sentence 12 HS10/11 undergoing repair in the Chronometer Workshop.
Plus lots of other interesting information in the reports, well worth the read for those interested in such details.
Terry”
Currently there are only 5 documented watches:
Y 1727 (From the Knirim military watch book) 10666926
Y 9388 10673507
Y 9408 10673587
Y 9701 10673900
Y 10736 10674935
Here are some other images:
From MWR
From a recent auction:
[
Here is the example from the Knirim book:
If you have a H.S. 10 marked watch we would love to see it and add it to the known list of them.. and if you have any insight please share.
Attempting to put together a little bit of a reference for a quite rare WWW Omega variant. The HS10 Royal Navy Supervisors watch. If you happen to own one or know anything about them please contribute to the thread here.
We have a page running at MWR for it as it is of course a military watch. LINK HERE
The information for these is relatively scarce but they were apparently used by the Royal Navy and their diver supervisors. They are the same watch as the WWW Dirty Dozen but most seem to have M.O.D dial variant ( some keep their original WWW dial) and the case backs are inscribed with the Royal Navy designation H.S. 10. H.S. Being short for Hydrographic Standard.
Some records indicate production number or issued watches somewhere between 389-307 total in use between 1945 and 1965.
While the W.W.W. watches are meant to be splashproof or water resistant they certainly are not waterproof.
Terry Andrews at MWR states
“What doesn't make sense is the Omega WWW remarked HS 10 watch, it certainly isn't a divers watch in the true sense ... They would have been perfectly suitable for the dive supervisor's role by meeting the 'splash-proof' requirement mentioned in B.R. 2806.
Thinking about the Omega HS10, I think it unlikely it was used for shallow water dives because the depth rating of the WWW was 20FT (info thanks to Ken Gordon).
Is it fair to say that MOD had two classifications for the H.S.10.
H.S. 10 - Dive Supervisors (Omega WWW)
H.S. 10 CD - Clearance Divers (Rolex 6150,6538, A/6538 & 5512)
It appears MOD differentiated between the Omega WWW HS10 and the A/6538 and 5512s by marking the divers watches HS10 CD.
We can deduce some sense of timing of the introduction of HS10 and HS11 marked watches by referring to the ROG workshop reports mentioned in the thread below. Martin mentions in post #2 that earlier references were for the ATP alone.
53 report - 38 watertight wrist watches mentioned
54 & 55 reports - HS10 and HS11 watches mentioned
Last mention of HS10/11 appears to be in the 54 - 55 ROG report. There's no mention in the 55 - 56 ROG report, which is also the last report accessible online.”
These apparent M.O.D. dials seem to be quite similar to the ones on the Omega 53 Fat Arrow RAF watches. The logo and circled T are nearly identical. The seconds dial has a number count in the outer ring.
The H.S. 10 is shown on the left and a Fat Arrow on the right.
An apparent photo of a diver supervisor (supervising diver Buster Crabb) in action with what could be the HS10 Omega on his wrist:
Some information from Finest-Hour on an old listing: LINK HERE
““The wonderful Omega for sale would have originally started life like any other standard W.W.W. wristwatch.
However, the Omega for sale is considerably rarer and special still due to it having been subsequently re-issued to the Royal Navy for the Diving Survey, most likely for use as a Dive Supervisors wristwatch. This is indicated by the additional markings of H.S 10 on the reverse of the case back. “H.S.10” refers to the Royal Navy stores reference for a “Divers Wristwatch”.
According to records held by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), the Dive Supervisors wristwatch was to be used for supervision and should be splash-proof but not pressure resistant.
The watch features an interesting MOD replacement dial, which bears a striking resemblance to the replacement “Fat Arrow” tritium dials fitted to Omega RAF pilots watches at the beginning of the 1950s.
Very few of these watches are thought to exist which makes the wonderful example for sale a truly rare and special find.”
Their images:
Terry Andrews over at MWR combed the archives of the Royal Observatory Greenwich and found some mentions on numbers of them made:
http://www.royalobservatorygreenwich...p?article=1278
“1953 Report - Chronometers:
38 watertight wrist watches, and in another paragraph;
The water-test apparatus on loan from Messrs. Rotherham and Sons Ltd., London, for the testing of watertight watches was returned on 27th November 1952.
Two improved models, of larger size, constructed in the Observatory workshop have been in use since that date. A small model of simpler design, presented by
the Rolex Watch Company, is also in use.
1954 Report - Chronometers:
389 wrist watches (HS10 and HS11), and in another paragraph; 307 HS10/11
1955 Report - Chronometers:
163 wrist watches (HS10 and HS11) are rating and ready for issue, and in the following sentence 12 HS10/11 undergoing repair in the Chronometer Workshop.
Plus lots of other interesting information in the reports, well worth the read for those interested in such details.
Terry”
Currently there are only 5 documented watches:
Y 1727 (From the Knirim military watch book) 10666926
Y 9388 10673507
Y 9408 10673587
Y 9701 10673900
Y 10736 10674935
Here are some other images:
From MWR
From a recent auction:
[
Here is the example from the Knirim book:
If you have a H.S. 10 marked watch we would love to see it and add it to the known list of them.. and if you have any insight please share.
Edited:
