Hello OF, Today I am offering for sale an exceptional piece of military,aviation, and watch history: a Longines Weems (also known as a Longines Second Setting Watch) issued to US Army Air Corps pilots in 1940. This watch was developed by U.S.N. Lt. Cmdr P.V.H. Weems, who taught navigation to Charles Lindberg, as a way for pilots to accurately track time to the second at a time when hacking movements were uncommon. As @craigbythesea wrote (in a fantastic post that can be found here https://omegaforums.net/threads/longines-weems-patent-2008734.64392/): “One of a number of Weems’ inventions was the second-setting watch. At sea, celestial sights had to be taken with the aid of a hack watch which was set to the ship’s chronometer. It was difficult, however, to set the watch exactly, which meant that it differed slightly from the chronometer, which in turn differed from Greenwich Mean Time. Weems reasoned that the difficulty in setting the watch came from the fact that at the time it was almost impossible to set the second hand exactly. However, if the second hand could not be set to match the dial perfectly, it might be possible to make the dial movable, so that the dial and the second hand were synchronized at the right time.” Hence the bezel affixed to this watch, which is rotated and locked through the second crown at 2 o’clock. As described in Whitney’s Military Timepieces, “to set the watch to the exact second of GCT (Greenwich Civil Time), the seconds bezel was rotated, keeping the 60-second graduation continuously under the sweep second hand. When the Greenwich radio time "tick" or signal which breaks at the 59th second and resumes on the 60th second was heard, the turning of the bezel was stopped. The watch then indicated the exact second of GCT.” Although both Wittnauer and Longines offered civilian versions of this watch that are relatively common, this particular example is an exceedingly rare version issued to US Army Air Corps pilots in 1940. The military versions are distinguished by their lack of brand identification on the dial, inscription on the caseback, and engraving on the movement bridge. The total number delivered to the USAAC is uncertain, but the serial numbers I have seen indicate just over a thousand were originally produced. This is, in my opinion, the best preserved example that I have seen. The watch is housed in a US made base metal case and has a Longines 10.68 movement. It measure a rather diminutive ~28mm. It does wind and run, but has not been serviced. As to provenance, I acquired this watch from a man who purchased it at the estate sale of the widow of the service member it was originally issued to. The watch will also come with an original Longines information booklet. I am asking $1500 net to me, either through bank wire or PayPal (+3%), and will include insured CONUS shipping. International buyers to pay actual shipping cost. I will allow a week for returns if the watch differs significantly from the discription above. Thank you OF for the space!