Water resistance is 5 bar, 50 m, no swimming or showering.
It has the stop-seconds function, useful in setting the watch to the nearest second. The movement is the ETA 2824-2 in its “Elaboré” version, a self-winding movement providing 38-40 hours power reserve. The watch has a brown vintage-look leather strap, with a titanium pin buckle.
The dial accurately reflects Type A B-Uhr patterns, with no logo, and luminous numerals and minute track in an attractive “old radium” beige colour. The case is in titanium to reduce weight (114 grams), while the caseback is in steel. This model in particular is distinctive for its large size, 47 mm in diameter and 14.2 mm thick, its solid caseback, conical crown, and caseback engraving that is similar to the information generally engraved inside the caseback of the WWII models. German brand Steinhart make an extensive range of pilot’s watches inspired by the World War II B-Uhr patterns. Steinhart Nav B-Uhr 47 Vintage TITAN A-Muster – €470 It combines the history of one of the original B-Uhr manufacturers with contemporary features – principally the sapphire caseback – and an attractive price. The Laco Augsburg 42 is an automatic pilot’s watch at €340 inclusive of VAT, available on line directly from the brand. You’ll probably think that there some important watches missing from this list, and you’re right, but hopefully you’ll find them in some other articles:įirst published 10 April 2015, updated 24 March 2018 1. The selection below is in increasing price order. Its 55 mm case made it the largest IWC watch ever (photo from the book Engineering Time Since 1868, courtesy IWC). IWC made about 1,200 of these, 1,000 delivered to the Luftwaffe, and 200 to the British Royal Navy. stands for Seconde au Centre, central seconds, and the T for tirette, stop seconds, a complication that IWC added to the original pocket watch movement, Calibre 52, dating back to an 1888 design, in order to bring it into line with the Luftwaffe specifications.
Alpina pocket watch serial numbers portable#
They were used for navigation purposes on ships much earlier, from the early 20th century, and right through to the early 1950s, as a portable addition to marine chronometers.ĭuring the War, the Luftwaffe specifications for Beobachtungsuhr, observation watches (abbreviated to B-Uhr) were for an indirectly-driven centre seconds hand with stop-seconds function, black dial, radium-coated numerals and hands, precision in timekeeping at temperatures down to 20☌ below zero, grey brass or steel case, and a strap, with loops riveted over the bar between the lugs, and extra long so it could be worn over a flying suit.Ī typical watch of this type is the IWC Big Pilots Watch, reference 431, 1940, with the calibre 52T S.C. So-called observation watches (Beobachtungsuhren) were not just used during the war.
There are now many others which make watches based on this genre, such as Alpina, Archimede, Bell & Ross, Bremont, Hamilton, Steinhart and so forth. Three of those historic brands still make pilot’s watches: IWC, Laco and Stowa. Lange & Sohne, IWC, Wempe, Laco, and Stowa. This selection presents twenty pilot’s watches, still in production, with the classic black dial, white Arabic numerals, and triangle marker at 12 o’clock, recalling the watches supplied to the Luftwaffe in the years before, during and after the Second Worlld War by A.
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