IWC SEALS

The Deck watch shown by Hajo is one of the most amazing cal.67 ones. After W.W. II had ended, many of the German war ships had been sunk by the allied forces. But not all and those ships that returned had their military Deck watch on board. In stead of disposing these watches, some of them were "rescued", ready for a second life. But the Nazi Reich had been eliminated. So the military signs on watches, bearing a Kriegsmarine logo on the dial a swastica and the German Eagle on the back lid, had to be whiped out. The German Navy solved the problem by removing the complete dial, to be replaced by a plain white dial. This meant that also the IWC logo had been removed. The back lid was polished until all stamps had been fainted.
Germany became soon a member of NATO and printed the mandatory Nato Stock Number (NSN) (in German "Versorgungsnummer") on the back lid. If one examines such watch, one often can see dents in the back lid. As a result of the polishing the back lid became thinner and more vulnerable. The wooden case with own NSN number and front of plexiglass, had a fixed place on the ship. The officer of duty had to wind it each morning at the same time. Noboddy else was allowed to touch the watch. If the procedure had ended , this was registrated in a log book and signed for. A former Navy officer who has observed this, is one of our forum members : Hajo Thissen.
What we know for sure is that this type of watch has been in combat more than 65 years ago. It is unknown how many are around, as IWC played no role in the "conversion" process,meaning that there is no registration in the Archives. During the post war period these mechanical cal. 67 IWC Chronometers lost their role in navigation. More modern instruments (radar) became available. During their second life these master pieces were used as a master clock, indicating the right time, once the power supply of the ship ceased for whatever reason....
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

Here is my cal. 67 Beobachtungsuhr or Deck watch, de-nazified, lying on the back of its wooden container with own NSN number. Note that the dial is blank.
The German forces had selected IWC cal. 67 as one of the most sturdy and reliable pocket watches at the start of W.W.II. But also after the war, they continued to use cal 67. Only the last Beobachtungsuhr in 1966 was an IWC cal. 97.
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

Antonio, an outstanding collection. Congratulations on the Big Uhr.

Gents, this post is living history!

In a previous contribution it was explained that the Kriegsmarine used Deck watches of 3 different classes. IWC was categorised in Class II. But when a watch performed extremely well, it could be upgraded to "Extended class II".
This meant that they were in practise as accurate as a class I watch. Many of IWC cal.67 were upgraded in such way. The watch depicted here, however, is a class III. It is a civilian cal. 67 sold by IWC in 1937 and registrated in their Archives. Later during W.W. II, the watch was taken over by the Kriegsmarine as the Swiss watch industry could not produce enough Deck watches. On the dial one can see the "KM" sign. We will probably never know how many of these civilian cal. 67 watches have been transformed, as at IWC they were not registrated as military PW's. These watches are thinner and smaller as their sturdy military colleagues....
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

Stunning collection Antonio!!!!

You mean this one Hajo ?

Exactly, Heiko. :-)
TU 5301, Cal. 972 with U-10 in the background. Only the birchwood case is missing. ;-)

Kind regards

I think, it could be this one !?

Hallo Heiko,
Here is mine in its original container. This is the only Deck watch for the Federal German Navy with cal. 9720, known as ref. 5301. The dial diameter is 41 mm and has been made of metal. Only 54 pieces have been produced, the last delivery took place in 1987.....

....The Nato Stock Number for this watch was 6645-12-151-5867
It seems that this watch never made it to a ship or submarine. The original sticker is still present.

....
Here is the original packing from IWC for ref. 5301. This watch was purchased in Wilhelmshafen, Germany, the current main port for the Navy in Germany...
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

...This is a confusing one. It is cal. 67 in a steel case, diameter of the dial 41 mm. Jürgen King,former IWC museum director, wrote about this watch : This had as reference number 135 and inside the case back it could have been marked as BWB. This might mean : Bundeswehr Bund. There was no inner case for dust protection.
The case numbers and movement numbers have been documented clearly by IWC. The watch was delivered to the "Bundesamt in Koblenz, Germany, December 5, 1966. The case number and the movement number of this Deck watch matched for the small series of 125 pieces for this extraordinary time piece...

....But... on the outside case back , there was no indication of the Bundeswehr, German Navy or , most importantly, no Nato Stock Number.
Just a 7 digit number, representing .... the movement number!
So I wrote to Herr Jürgen King and via IWC I got his reply : this watch is the only military PW for the Federal German Navy for which some pieces got the NSN number :6645-12-144-3142 while on other lots only the movement number was stamped on the back lid. Sofar so good...
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

...Last but not least.
This is the Deck watch from the third and last series used by German war ships and submarines (U-Boote), during W.W. II
The number produced for these series is unknown. Very special is the dial. It has a soft green colour and it glows shortly in the dark. Until today sellers and collectors assume that the complete dial is covered with radioactive substance containing Radium, a radioactive material with a half life time of 1600 years. A potential hazardous watch, one could say!
However, I was able to measure its radiation by using different Geiger counters in a hospital and found ....zero radiation!
The surface of the dial is covered with Zinc Sulphid (ZnS), a greenish powder, not radioactive but glowing (illuminating) for a short time, when white light or ultraviolet light is falling upon it. Infact it is used until today for instance on radar screens, when the sweeping central beam is turning around and picking up objects being within the range of the radar.
Already during W.W. II this technique was used , especially by the German submarines. They should be , once submerged, completely invisible. Any source of light on board was strictly forbidden. The submarines had an ultraviolet light source on board as part of their standard equipment. This was turned on for a short time, shining on the Deck watch. This responded by glowing for a short time, indicating the exact time and than extincting again.
Among all watches around, military watches have a story to tell. Such story is connected directly to world history. Deck watches, whether used by nations one might consider as friend or foe, have determined the fate of many people, maybe including yours and mine.... This is why IWC Deck watches are special to me.
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

Adrian,

That last one is of interest to me as I notice that a few other brands have contemporary watches with dials that lume. I was unaware of the use of such dials during the 40's.

And here I thought I was cool with this trio:

Live and learn.

Regards,
Adam

PS - Oh yeah, about that JLC SEAL...

;-)

Hello Adrian,
it might be confusing but it isn't if you have further look at the markings.
BWB doesn't mean Bundeswehr Bund but rather 'Bundesamt für Wehrtechnik und Beschaffung'. This is the government authority which is responsible for all acquisitions, technical and electonic developments of the Bundeswehr including weapons, armour-bearer and all kind of relevant material. So this watch was acquired by the BWB from IWC for instance as a kind of prototype probably among other brands and not issued to the troops later on. The watch remained in the stock of the BWB and was later sold by the VEBEG, the company which is responsible for the selling after the decomission.

Kind regards