My Military Collection, sort of..... (updated)

Well, I have decided the path by which my military watch collection will head. I have decided to go along the British Military. It of course does not mean I will not look at other military watches along the journey. I do appreciate that I am late into the game, but we all have to start somewhere. I am slowly learning about British issued military watches. There are a lot.

On a side track, there is an interesting article in the watch magazine QP, Issue 36. There are articles on the Blancpain 50 and 500 Fathoms, about Military collecting and about the book by Mr. Konrad Knirim, British Military Timepieces (a book I really need to get). The article on military collecting is interesting in that it does list down a repertoire of watches to get to form the basic military collection.

From the magazine; a basic repertoire that will not break the bank (that should form the basis of my collection):

1. Any common small-seconds W.W.W. model, e.g. Vertex, Timor

2. Lemania or CWC chronograph

3. 1960/1970s sweep-seconds Smiths

4. US Army Hamilton, Elgin or Waltham A-11

5. 1960s Bundeswehr 3H Heuer Chronograph

A dream collection that will break the bank:

1. Pre-WWII Longiness Weems or full size Lindbergh

2. Lange & Sohne or IWC Luftwaffe Fliegeruhr

3. Rolex Royal Navy Submariner

4. Breguet Type XX, early editions

5. Any pre-1960s Panerai, especially 1950s Egiziano or Rolex powered Radiomir

6. Blancpain, LIP or Tornel-Rayville Fifty Fathoms, especially labelled Milspec 1

7. 1880s Girard-Perregaux for the German Navy

8. IWC Mk X

9. IWC Mk 11

10. Jeager-LeCoultre Mk 11

11. Eterna W.W.W.

12. Omega 1953

Well, I do not have all of the above. All I have are a couple of CWC, Precista and Hamilton (Hamilton Geneve). So I shall start from there. I currently have 2 mechanical hand-wound British issued military watch. These are the stainless steel mono-block tonneau shaped watches. There were 3 different dials (2 manufactures). The manufactures were Hamilton and CWC. CWC took over from Hamilton when Hamilton withdrew from supplying the MOD watches. That is the reason why the shape of the watch and dials are the same (with minor differences). The Hamilton had 2 dial design, one signed 'HAMILTON' and the other 'HAMILTON GENEVE'.

I have the CWC G10 and the Hamilton Geneve G10 watch. The hunt is on for a Hamilton G10. Anyway, below is a table of the number of watches (mechanical CWC, Hamilton and Hamilton Geneve) that have been issued. This table is based on the great work of Mr. Terry from MWR.

HAMILTON

Year Code No Issued

1971 0552 150

1973 W10 25,000

1974 6bb 3,000

1975 W10 7,000

1975 6BB 1,500

1976 W10 5,000

HAMILTON GENEVE

Year Code No Issued

1974 6bb 2,500

1975 6BB 600

1975 0552 500

CWC

Year Code No Issued

1976 W10 10,000

1977 W10 5,500

1979 W10 8,000

1980 W10 2,000

These watches were subsequently replaced by the quartz powered CWC and Precista G10 watches.

Anyway here are my watches. I will be reviewing them soon.

CWC W10 - refer note

Hamilton Geneve 6bb

Together, with one missing.....

Of course the hunt is on for the rest, a W.W.W. (perhaps to be filled by the soon the be issued Longines W.W.W. reissue), a chronograph, a Smith, the RAF Seiko (I do have a civilian version), and ........

Note: I have found out that the CWC has correct dial and hands but it is the wrong case. The case is a Hamilton. I am currently correcting this mistake. Such mistakes happen when the watches goes back to service and the servicemen put the wrong dial with the wrong case or they salvage parts to repair a watch.