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Longines Weems

2025-01-17T22:35:25Z

Vintage Watch Lover: /* The Longines Weems 6B/159 models */

==The Longines Weems 6B/159 models==
[[File:Longines weems front.jpg|thumb]]
[[File:Longines weems back.jpg|thumb]]
Numbered in the approximate range 1800/40 to 3700/40. A typical serial number of the watch movement is 5934652 for case 2340/40. This makes the movements a few thousand earlier in production than the smaller A-11 Longines Weems, e.g. with a serial number 5938556 for case 40-662.

The back cover is marked with “Goldsmiths & Silversmiths” who procured the watches. “AM” stands for the Ministry of Air Force (Air Ministry). The case serial number for all five manufacturers of 6B/159 watches runs sequentially, and the model above is 2340/40. Observed serial numbers for the Longines models range from at least 1893/40 to 3691/40.
[[File:Experts Watches-Vintage-Longines-Weems-10.68N-Chronograph-Watch (23) 1.jpg|thumb|right]]

==Links==
* [[Weems Watches]]
* [[Weems]]
* [[Military Watches]]
* [[Switzerland]]
* [[Military Pilot Watches]]

File:Experts Watches-Vintage-Longines-Weems-10.68N-Chronograph-Watch (23) 1.jpg

2025-01-17T22:34:44Z

Vintage Watch Lover:

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2025-01-17T22:31:57Z

Vintage Watch Lover:

Weems Watches

2025-01-17T22:30:49Z

Vintage Watch Lover: /* Introduction */

==Weems Watches of WW2==
[[File:Weems.jpg|thumb]]

==Introduction==
As the prospect of war loomed, the RAF and USAF made plans. The expansion schemes from 1934 to 1939 provided the opportunity for forward planning and item which needed to be sourced was a hacking watch for pilots to assist with accurate navigation. This needed to be simple to use for dead reckoning navigation. The original Weems shown right was actually too complicated - a more simple easy-to-read version was required.

British and American air forces held joint meetings regarding the design of the American A-11 watch, which in Britain was sourced for the RAF and labelled the 6B/159. The watch was to have a hacking facility. The Weems A-11 was initially manufactured in accordance with US military specification 27834, published in August 1937.

The British military deemed the A-11 Weems model too small at 27mm diameter, and Longines produced a 34mm version from 1937 onwards.

About 7000 Weems 6B/159 watches were produced to this specification, and they were individually numbered xxxx/40 on the case back.

There were five manufacturers of these timepieces; [[Longines]], [[Omega]], [[Jaeger LeCoultre|Jaeger-LeCoultre]], [[Zenith]] and [[Movado]]. [[Omega]], [[Zenith]] and [[Movado]] used the same case.

The Longines Weems is thought to be the most common, and the Movado the least common.
[[File:Experts Watches-Vintage-Longines-Weems-10.68N-Chronograph-Watch (24).jpg|thumb|right|Vintage-Longines-Weems-10.68N-Experts Watches]]

==The Military Weems Watches==
[[File:Weems x5.jpg|thumb]]

*[[Longines Weems]]
*[[Omega Weems]]
*[[Jaeger LeCoultre Weems]]
*[[Zenith Weems]]
*[[Movado Weems]]

File:Experts Watches-Vintage-Longines-Weems-10.68N-Chronograph-Watch (24).jpg

2025-01-17T22:28:42Z

Vintage Watch Lover:

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2024-12-10T02:04:50Z

Vintage Watch Lover:

Doxa

2024-12-06T22:52:09Z

Vintage Watch Lover: /* History */

[[File:Doxa logo.jpg|thumb]]
==Summary==
Montres DOXA S.A., is an independent Swiss watch manufacturer founded in 1889. Doxa is best known for its dive watches. Between 1968 and 1978 DOXA became part of Synchron S.A. In 1978 DOXA S.A. was acquired by Aubrey Frères S.A. and then was sold to the Jenny family in 1997. In 2002 Doxa introduced re-editions of its watches and timepieces in limited quantities.

==History==
Doxa, founded in 1889 by Georges Ducommun, began as a maker of dress watches and other timepieces. Over the years, Doxa gained in size and branched out into other timekeeping markets.

In the late 1960s Doxa decided to devote resources to create a watch to be used for diving. Tests indicated that an orange face was more visible in murky water. Doxa also consulted with divers, including Jacques Cousteau, then chairman of "U.S. Divers," and Claude Wesly (a Cousteau companion and the first man to spend seven days thirty-three feet underwater). A staff of engineers and professional divers was assembled to create a watch with the required features. The Sub300t was purchased in quantity by U.S. Divers, who resold the watch in the United States.
[[File:DOXA-SUB 300T-DivingStar-Poseidon-Limited Edition-Diving-1.jpg|thumb|right|Doxa Sub 300T Diving Star Poseidon]]
The Doxa Sub300t features an orange face, intended to make it more visible in the water. It has a rotating bezel with the official US Navy air dive table for no-decompression dives engraved onto its surface. The watch could be used to calculate decompression times, and other information useful to divers. It was rated to work 300 meters below sea level, and later versions were introduced that could work up to 750 meters below sea level. Other watchmakers then followed with similar bezels, as well as different watch faces.
Soon after the introduction of the Sub300t, the Swiss watch industry was hard-hit economically by the introduction of quartz watches. Accurate, reliable and small timepieces could now be made without the mechanical movements that the Swiss specialized in constructing. In response, Doxa joined a group of Swiss watchmakers to consolidate resources. This eventually failed and Doxa, after being sold, ceased operations in about 1980.

The Jenny family of Switzerland now owns the brand. in August 2002, Rick Marei has helped DOXA introduce re-editions of the dive watch line and other timepieces in limited quantities. Many are reproductions of the original models in design and construction, and all use Swiss movements.

==Notable Models==
[[File:Doxa redford.jpg|thumb]]
The hero of the Dirk Pitt book series by author Clive Cussler wears an orange-faced Doxa watch, and also in the movie Sahara an orange-faced Doxa is worn by Dirk Pitt. In recognition of this, Doxa presented Cussler with a special watch.

[[The Doxa and Three Days of The Condor (Robert Redford)|Robert Redford wears a Doxa watch in the 1975 film Three Days of the Condor]].

* [[Doxa Sub 300]]

* [[Doxa Sub 200 T-Graph]]

The Doxa 300 was seen in the [[The Watches of Jacques Cousteau|Jacques Cousteau]] series.

==Links==

*[[Switzerland]]

*[[Diving Watches]]

*[[Main Page]]

File:DOXA-SUB 300T-DivingStar-Poseidon-Limited Edition-Diving-1.jpg

2024-12-06T22:49:52Z

Vintage Watch Lover:

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2024-12-05T00:49:48Z

Vintage Watch Lover:

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2024-12-05T00:46:32Z

Vintage Watch Lover:

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2024-12-05T00:45:22Z

Vintage Watch Lover:

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2024-12-05T00:44:12Z

Vintage Watch Lover:

Diving Watches

2024-12-05T00:40:50Z

Vintage Watch Lover: /* A Brief History of Diving Watches */

==A Brief History of Diving Watches==
[[File:Lugran.jpg|thumb]]

“More people have walked on the moon than have been to the deepest place in the ocean.”

The ability to read and measure elapsed time underwater is crucial, and potentially life-saving. The challenge of making a watch work underwater was great, one that the brightest and best in the watch world rose to and produced some of the most interesting, valuable and collectable underwater time-keepers...of all time.

A dive watch is one with 200 meters of water resistance. This is achieved through extremely tight machining tolerances, specially sealed points in the caseback and crown, and exclusive features tailored towards keeping a diver safe underwater. The terms compressor, super-compressor and respirator may be used.

A dive watch bezel is designed to act as a "dive timer," and its uni-directional rotation is engineered as an added safety measure — should the bezel get bumped or accidentally rotated, it will show that 'more' dive time has elapsed, thereby alerting the diver to ascend early and within the limits of his air supply.

Good dive watches usually use some type of luminous paint on the dial and hands for low-light legibility. The dial may be orange to enhance readability. Early examples used radioactive radium (up to circa 1961) or tritium (up to circa 1997) paint, whose brown or yellowish decay is much prized by collectors.

[[File:Experts-Watches-Omega-Ploprof-SeaMaster-600-Diving-70.jpg|right|frameless|Omega Ploprof SeaMaster 600]]

Many modern "professional grade" dive watches such as The Omega [[Seamaster 300]] feature helium escape valves — another safety measure designed to protect the watch from damage when going from prolonged periods in helium-saturation to the surface (something very few outside highly specialized commercial diving fields ever experience).

The deepest a watch has ever been was to 11,000 meters in 2012 when a specially-built [[Rolex]] was strapped to the robotic claw of a submersible piloted by James Cameron, and driven to Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench.
[[File:solvil titus diver.jpg|thumb]]

**UPDATE** In 2019, three specially made experimental watches dubbed [[Seamaster|Omega Seamaster]] Planet Ocean Ultra Deep Professionals survived a 10,928 meter dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench affixed to the bathyscaphe Limiting Factor, setting a new world record as deepest dive watch by 12 meters!

*[[Military Diving Watches]]
*[[Civilian Diving Watches]]
*[[Famous Diving Watches]]
*[[Regatta Watches]]

==Links==
* [[Switzerland]]
* [[Main Page]]
*[[The Watches of Jacques Cousteau]]
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Quick Links
|-
| [[Individual Watch Manufacturers]]
|-
| [[Diving Watches]]
|-
| [[Military Watches]]
|-
| [[Famous Watches and Their Owners]]
|-
| [[A-Z|Glossary of Watch Terms]]
|-
| [[A Brief History of Watches]]
|-
| [[Watch Videos]]
|-
| [[Individual Watch Models]]
|-
| [[Pilot Watches]]
|-
| [[Movie Watches]]
|-

|-

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2024-12-05T00:13:15Z

Vintage Watch Lover: