New life to my Mark 11

Magnificent - both 11 & WWW. Hard core IWC!
Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Evan

Not just you, Tony. A military watch has to have some wabi, in my eyes.

With you 100%.

Ross

I posted this image recently under the cheesy title The Three Musketeers :), but I think now it is a good opportunity to re-post it so my W.W.W., BOAC and RAF Mark 11s can be viewed together with yours'.
Better than one Mark 11 or one W.W.W. only 3 Mark 11s and 2 W.W.W.s

handsome trio there !

Thank you everyone and Soegaard in particular for very useful information.
I am considering to change the dial too with the same reason as Soegaard. My dial is not IWC original (white dial which made of brass rather than soft iron).

I did it backwards. I bought this dial a while ago waiting to purchase one of those white/black Mark 11s with brass dials. I am still looking. :)

You know what my old pa used to say....'don't go turning them German BUND 300m's into Ocean 2000's'.

Was the watch in heavilly distressed condition pre spa, looks to be lots of metal missing from the case .

No the case wasn't too bad. IWC only polished it lightly. The watch might well have been polished at an earlier stage though.

IMHO it doesn't look that bad when I compare with photos of other Mark 11s on the net.

JK

Iit's normally difficult to view both inside lug facias at the same time, irregardless of which way it's tipped.

Hi Ross.
You are absolutely correct. My editor failed me. :) Clearly it is not just I who prefer military watches showing their hard lives, and that others have the right to like their vintage watches look like they just came out of the factory.
To reflect the idea I intended to convey, I should have said: "But that is me, others may like their vintage watches looking like new. To each his own. No one is right, no one is wrong."

If you ever prefer an original dial back on your watch then drop me a line and i'll stick one in the post for you (my treat).

Thank you very much oneredtrim for such a generous offer. I am a bit annoyed with the T-symbol which wasn't on the original dial in 1948, so I will be glad to accept your offer.

I guess there is no PM facility in the forum at the moment, so I can't write to your email address.

My email is jk.soegaard(at)mac.com

Thanks again

Jens-Kristian

The dial and hands of the Mark 11 were significantly different in 1948. The original dial had a 12 instead of the triangle, the numbers were smaller, the hands were narrower, the hour hand was longer and pointy and the night luminosity was achieved trough 226Radium based paint. It was replaced by Tritium in 1963.
If you want a Mark 11 as they were in 1948, you must look for the Mark 11 bought by BOAC in the early 1950s. I do not think there are any RAF Mark 11s with the original RAF dial.
The watch in the middle of the image I posted on this thread is a BOAC Mark 11 with a dial as the RAF Mark 11 had in 1948. BOAC never changed the dial or the hands.

She looks new...Do enjoy!

Cheers from Isobars.

Hi to everyone,

I'm new to the forum but very curious about a watch I have that I think is a IWC Mark II.

It does look identical to the BOAC in the image posted by clepsydra. The only problem is that it has absolutely no engraved markings on the outside of the case so I have no idea if it's an original unadulterated RAF (?) issue.

How would I find out more about the date of my watch?

I've never opened the case but have recently left it with a London watchmaker for repairs to the movement and restoration of the dial. It won't be ready for a month or so which seemed quite a slow turnaround at the time but having now read the posts on this thread I'm now wondering if it would have been wiser to accept a longer period of TLC and send it straight to the manufacturer for refurbishment and certification!

Slight correcton to my earlier post (at half two in the morning I'm a bit sleepy)....

My watch looks almost identical to clepsydra's BOAC - with the only difference being that mine has the broad arrow mark on the dial just below the IWC logo.

Hope that provides an added clue!

The broad arrow on the dial plus no case engravings doesn't compute. There was a civilian model with no outside case back engravings, but that would have a plain dial.

Do you have any photos? There are a lot of fake Mark 11s out there, and yours should be checked. Good photos would be a first step.