What do you think of this old Movado?

it's 40.8 mm diameter. I can't find any examples of others like it online. I like it. Ever since I first saw it. It reminds of ww1 'trench watches' only this having a large size it seems cooler (have bought trench watches in the past and most of them look tiny on my wrists being around 30-35mm. Have any of you ever seen one like this? I read on the Internet that nowadays Movado has departed into something called 'fashion watches'. Personally I don't like the contemporary aesthetics as much as the older 'calendograf' era. This one is listed on C24 as being made in the '1910's'.



It reminds me of a watch I once saw that had been labelled a 'Zenith 'Big Pilot'' (1913) - looked like a ‘trench watch’ (in that it had a porcelain/enamel white dial and simple block numerals) but it was 40mm.

Do you reckon the pictured Movado may have also been intended for use with pilots? Or was it just a massive watch for the time? Any opinions welcome.

Im still learning about the sizing of the era. I know that some pocket watches were much smaller than the frequently seen 50mm cases, so I guess they just picked a size that wasn’t huge and went with it.

Well… Now that you mention it… I don’t. And judging by your question I’m guessing that, in the case of Movado of this era, I ought to be seeing it. Does this suggest that this particular example might be somewhat bogus? Franken-like?

Doesn't look like a pocket watch case to me, front bezel seems different than a PW would use.
Certainly a high grade movement.

Only other markings are on the case back…

but it certainly isn’t marked in the same manner as these other movement's of a similar time -

I thought the same about the case. It looks pretty unique in that respect.

Too many similarities to the marked Movadoes to not be one.
Most manufacturers of the day would supply marked or unmarked movements for private labels.

Thats very interesting. So, judging by the existence of the zenith big pilot, maybe it was a military commission for pilots after all.