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The muggy jungle of the South Pacific was no place for weak watches. As World War II raged through the early 1940s, Allied troops found themselves trailing behind the production capabilities of their Axis counterparts, and manufacturing on the homefront turned all attention to the war effort. Civilian-spec’d watches were not going to cut it in either theater of operations – the elements were too brutal for delicate equipment of any kind. Military necessity being the timeless innovator it is, the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) committed to finding robust timekeeping options for the Allies that could be produced as quickly as possible. The specifications were stringent and twelve brands were tapped for the task: Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lemania, Longines, IWC, Omega, Record, Timor, and Vertex.
Among many other things, the watches were to have a black dial, Arabic numerals and be housed in a stainless steel case. The time would be made legible with the help of luminous indices and hands – care for a little radium, anyone? Every watch was marked on the caseback with triple Ws: Wrist Watch Waterproof. The diameter ranged in sizes, depending on the brand, with Longines at the larger end of 38mm and IWC and Omega on the small side at 35mm. These watches are widely considered to be the first true field watches, as we know field watches today.
The entire set, one watch from each of the twelve brands selected for production, is a collection-grail for many watch enthusiasts. It’s estimated the number of complete sets in original condition hovers around twenty, making pursuit of some of these watches difficult and costly.
