Reposting an edited version of first publication on the Military Watch Ressource Forum.

Among the various Weems watches we know there is a smaller 28mm version which has many civilian variants, often misrepresented as “military”.

This smaller model has one notable military variant, the US Army Air Corps A11, easily recognizable by its sterile, unsigned dial and characteristic US issue case back markings.

While I have to suppose the A11 was a man’s watch (others might know better, who knows what research might turn up!), the small civilian Weems was marketed for broadcasters, engineers, air and sea navigators, and YES, women.

That knowledge comes with certainty from Ms. Stephanie Lachat, at the time International Brand Heritage Manager at Longines, in an email exchange I had with her in the summer of 2016.

I was asking her about information on small sports watches marketed to women. This is a bit quick and dirty but I wanted to get it out there otherwise I never will.

She replied she had no marketing information with regards to the screw backs (six notched “sei tacches”), but she replied the following, in an email to me dated July 8, 2016, originally written in French (attached below):

My translation: “I can give you some information relating intents towards feminine wrists which were set out during the production of the new second setting watch in 1936:

The Longines second setting watch, also called more simply Weems, had a second version in 1936, the New Second Setting Watch. It is smaller than the standard version.

« To meet the demand for a second-setting watch for general use as well as for general purposes, the new wrist model second-setting watch has been developed by Weems System of Navigation in collaboration with Longines-Wittnauer Company. Size 1.1 in. diameter”[1]. [ORIGINAL ARCHIVEcQUOTE IN ENGLISH]

In February 1937, the Weems System of Navigation made its intents more explicit, and its target female audience, in the creation of this new model : « to the tiny wrists of girls aviators and yachting enthusiasts. (…) Every girl in the United States will boast of one on her wrist » (Archives Weems, Nashville, Weems Box 30 Folder 11 Part A).”[ORIGINAL ARCHIVE QUOTE IN ENGLISH]

I have long meant to publish this along with more in depth research but guess I got a bit busy.

The next question would be why the US chose those small watches for the rare A11 model- given that I have to suspect the US Army Air Corps at the time used male navigators.
And I have to suspect, as Ilya wrote in another thread about the Le Coultre A11 (or perhaps it was Zaf?), those 1940s A11s predated the US entry into WWIi. Roosevelt didn’t think he could get Congressional support, and I’ll have to suppose they took whatever supply was already available in the US because they could not not get new supply contracts approved.


Best regards,
S

 

Great and interesting bit of research, all-around!

I’m not an expert on this topic and period, but I believe that despite any such doubts there were still significant ramp-up efforts prior to Pearl Harbor.

Relative to your post, as early as September 1939 discussions were probably well underway to create a women’s division of the Air Corps (see below)

Is the timing so far off for the WAFS/WASP, and what may have been early plans for similar programs utilizing women in the “back office” of navigation (on ground and in air)?

https://www.magellantv.com/articles...-and-wasp-were-hidden-figures-of-world-war-ii

“In 1939, there were only around 20,000 pilots in the Army Air Corps, but that number would grow to almost 200,000 after the U.S. entered the war. Even with those numbers, though, there would not be enough men to do every job. So, foreseeing the shortage, another notable female pilot, Jacqueline “Jackie” Cochran, wrote to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt advocating for female pilots to be put to work. In her message, Cochrane suggested that women pilots should fly non-combat missions to free up men for combat roles – and that these women should have their own division in the Air Corps.

Around the same time, Nancy Harkness Love, another pioneering aviator, also lobbied the Air Corps to recruit women pilots. The job of these women would be to ferry aircraft to military bases from the factories where the planes were built, as well as to tow drones and aerial targets. Nancy Love’s husband, who was in the Army Air Corps, and Colonel William H. Turner also showed interest in Love’s proposal, and they created an aircraft ferrying program with women pilots becoming part of the group.”

It was September, 1939, that Cochran wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt advocating for a women’s division of the Air Corps.

And if Cochran and Love were advocating for these ideas as early as Sept. 1939, I think nothing would preclude the Air Corps from having even earlier performed the maths to realize the need to utilize women? That is to say, while the Cochran and Love stories are told colloquially as though their efforts single-handedly materialized the idea, that could be the compelling story that conveniently omits where preparations for such a thing had already been well underway within the Air Corp’s preparations?

For your purposes, how might the timeline work out if say, hypothetically, the Air Corp was in late 1938 beginning to plan for the eventuality of war (and resulting necessity for female pilots and navigators)?

Appreciate you entertaining a bit of armchair brainstorming over your better thoughts out efforts.

 

This thread needs pics!
(Civilian model)
1943 according to Longines archives if I recall from my extract.

 

Much needed pics indeed, and a beautiful example to boot
Here’s one of mine, on a female wrist of course.
The silver dial and applied indexes sometimes reflect the light in supernatural ways.

 

No attachment yet (I know photos can play up uploading sometimes)

 

I was the one playing up, I realized the initial pics were blurry. Now fixed.

That is fabulous info, so many thanks — nothing like collaborative efforts and knowledge being exchanged on forums.

 

Love it on the Bonklip!

 

It’s a good combo

 

What is this six notch watch you are referring to? I don't believe there has been any mass produced six notch vintage weems.

 

Dear Seiji,
the six notch watch I was asking Stephanie about was a ladies’ sei tacche (picture below). And she replied she had no info about how those watches were marketed to women.
But she also volunteered on her own motion, as a «consolation prize » for not having info on the sei tacche, that Longines did have a documented marketing goal towards women for the small Weems. So she gave me the small Weems info in reply to my question about lady sei tacches.

As for the non standard « USAC » case back, I would appreciate if we could avoid diverting my thread to re-litigate the debate which has already taken place on MWR.

Many thanks for your understanding,
With all my best as ever,
S