Wondering what this inscription means

The watch is a Longines cased (and rebranded?) by west end watches and I meant to know if somebody has a clue of what this CS(I) represents. I thought it was a personal inscription until I recently saw a Favre Leuba with the same marks on the case back

thank you all for reading this 😉

It's either Civil Service (India), of Canteen Services (India). It was long thought to be civil service but a letter turned up recently that seemed to indicate canteen services. So, to the best of my knowledge no one knows definitively. There are quite a few brands marked as such, including Omega.

show us the front-side 😉

I will take a picture of the front once I get home 😉
Thank you for your nice answers (and knowledge) 👍👍

Lots of info on CS(I) watches here https://www.mwrforum.net/forums/sho...-Longines-watch-with-history-spotted-for-sale, need to be a member of MWR to read, unfortunately.

here you have. Pretty watch IMO 😀



thanks. I will definitely take a look. I was a bit ashamed to ask but I don’t even know what “civil service” actually means 😵‍💫 I most certainly find my answers there. Thanks again

Here another interesting debate

https://www.mwrforum.net/forums/sho...-Longines-watch-with-history-spotted-for-sale

This in my opinion is the more persuasive info - be it only because the Indian Civil Service was represented by the acronym ICS -and not CSI.and because also the contemporary letter is very powerful testimony IMHO.

very nice watches OP.

That info you posted @JimInOz is the one that @Bubba and @size11s are referring to;
and which is discussed at length in the MWR thread @size11s @Bubba posted above.

In summary, until recently all trusted sources were repeating what had been asserted initially in a reference book by Zygmunt Wesolowski, “A concise guide to military timepieces”. The CS(I) watch was considered as issued watch but to « Civil Service India », not to the military.

Konrad Knirim’s authoritative book on military time pieces used the same info, he himself messaged me to confirm his source was Wesolowski.
Some people were a bit skeptical, @rodabod had found a ministry of defense document referring to similar looking acronyms « C.S(A) » and C.S.(M) »- which could not be readily identified and the official Indian civil service acronym at the time was « ICS » (credit Dave from MWR).

Then a gentleman @etiennelaine on MWR (and OF) in 2019 posted the listing offered on Gutlin- with documents linking the watch to its owner Jeff Greensticket from the 44th Indian Airborne division during WWII, who won a lottery allowing the purchase of the watch from « Canteen Services india ».

No need to repeat the full discussion, which is on MWR.

I’ll add that the moderate price offered for this patinated watch and the fact the people writing the listing were clearly unaware of the literature give the documents additional credibility if any were needed. It’s not some sales puffery cooked up to push the price.

But did the Canteen Service only sell watches?
Why in nearly 100 years has no watch or militaria collector ever come across another item engraved with CS(I)?

If they sold food, medication, matches, candles, clothing and cigarettes and belts, moaquito repellent or mosquito nets, would there be any surviving and bearing a CS(I) mark ? Watches are extremely durable items which people paid attention to because they were supposed to last a lifetime and they were expensive.

Maybe knives? But how do you know no one found a knife with a CS(I) mark?

Just a theory, but Canteen Service sounds like it might have been a self-deprecating inside joke for those in the Civil Service. If the watch was inherited, the joking nature of how it was referred to by someone who served might have been lost or taken as fact.

I’m sure we can get that resolved if you wanted access again 😉