WW1 Military Watches

Notes on British Military Watches 1914-1919

British Watches, Aircraft

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Historical Background

Britain was notoriously slow to adopt powered flight. The first flight in Britain of a heavier-than-air, manned, craft was not recorded until 16 October 1908. (The pilot was Samuel F Cody, an American, assisted in his efforts by the Royal Engineers based in the ‘Balloon Factory’ at Farnborough). The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was established in April 1912, however, and soon afterwards the recently-formed Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers, its observation kites and balloons now supplemented by fixed wing aircraft, was surrendered to provide the basis for the Military Wing. The Naval Wing of the RFC, administered by the Air Department of the Admiralty (1912-1915), quickly evolved into the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), which was part of the Military Branch of the Royal Navy, and under the control of the Admiralty from 1914 onwards.

This separation of air power, which was never clear cut or even necessarily intuitive, continued throughout the war, with both organisations often competing for the same resources. The RNAS operated seaplanes from bases such as Calshot in Hampshire and Eastchurch in Kent, and pioneered the flying of aircraft from naval vessels. However, the Admiralty also sent land-based aircraft to France in support of RFC operations and interpreted its historical role as defender of the island’s coastline so liberally at times as to include responsibility for the air defence of Great Britain and to justify attacks on Zeppelin bases and manufacturing sites located in Germany.

On 1 April 1918, the Royal Air Force was established as an ‘independent’ force, ie as a third arm, separate from both the Army and the Navy, and the RFC and RNAS were both disbanded.

The working assumption among military watch collectors has always been that the RNAS issued the Admiralty Type I and II aviation watch throughout WWI whilst the RFC issued the Mark IVA, and later the Mark V.

Common Features of the WWI Aviation Watches

The archetype for British aviation watches was established from the start:

• an 8-day Swiss movement was used for the works (even in the Mark V, which allowed otherwise for 30-hour movements);
• nomenclature was applied to the dial (specifying, amongst other things, the contracted supplier of the watch);
• both luminous and non-luminous versions of the dial were offered.

Eight-day movements

Before the 30-hour Mark V standard was formulated, the British aviation watch used 8-day movements from a variety of Swiss makers (not all of them identified). It is likely that 8-day movements were chosen for their inherent stability and accuracy rather than in anticipation of extended flying times. (The later adoption of the 30-hour watch reflects the evolution of Swiss watchmaking rather than a change in military requirements).

Octava Watch Company 8-day movement

An 8-day ¾ plate nickel movement; 15-jewelled; club tooth and straight line lever escapement; bimetallic compensated cut balance.

Typically, the movements are marked thus:

OCTAVA WATCH COMPANY SWITZERLAND/15 FIFTEEN JEWELS/3 THREE ADJUSTMENTS/U.S.A.P. 816321

U.S.A.P. expands to United States Approved Patent.

Some examples carry both USA and German patent numbers: U.S.A.P. 816321-D.R.P. 175275 (where D.R.P. expands to Deutsches Reich Patent). Sometimes + [PATENT] 33103 is seen as well, denoting a Swiss patent. The extended patent numbers tend to be associated with earlier movements, showing 2 TWO ADJUSTMENTS rather than 3 THREE ADJUSTMENTS. In the aviation watches, it is possible that the variation in marking implies a pre-WWI importation from Europe and a later importation from the U.S.A. (the U.S.A.P. only marking).

The movement design is protected by a patent for a remontoir winding watch that was filed in the USA on March 23 1905 by Frantisek Hartmann of Prague (then located in the Austro-Hungarian Empire), and issued on March 27 1906. One half of the Patent was assigned to Josef Oliak, who was apprenticed as a watchmaker but later achieved greater fame in his homeland as an actor, especially in films. The subject matter of the patent was to so arrange the several wheels and other parts of the gearing as to make the winding at relatively long periods possible without increasing the size of the watch, the number of the wheels, and the height of the barrel or spring-box, and retain the center wheel in the middle. The Swiss Patent (Nr 33103) is dated 11 March 1905, whilst the German patent (D.R.P. Nr 175275) was granted on 22 September 1906. The documents relating to the US Patent are more widely-quoted, however, because they are more readily available (and are written in English).

This is a well known commercial movement, commonly available under the brand name of the Octava Watch Company. This name was registered on 12 April 1907 by Graizeley et Cie, La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Arthur Graizely had founded Graizely Frères with his brother in 1888 in order to exploit a patent for an 8-day watch that he had obtained from Irenée Aubry. (This became the well-known Hebdomas watch, and it was Graizely who made it a commercial success). The involvement of Otto Schild (of Grenchen) in the business led to the company being renamed Graizeley et Cie in 1904 and subsequently, from 1915, it became Manufacture d`Horlogerie Schild et Cie SA, based in Rue du Parc, La-Chaux-de-Fonds. The choice of ’Octava’ as a name is intended to indicate a specialism in 8-day watches. Note: the company name is often mistyped in the Internet age as ‘Octavia’.

All Octava movements have serial numbers stamped to the base plate near the balance wheel, allowing broad sequencing to be established.

The Octava Watch Co supplied movements seen in the Admiralty Marks I and II, the (putative) Mark III, the Mark IVA, and an anomalous version of the Mark V (which otherwise is a 30-hour watch). For a while, Favre-Jacot (better known today as Zenith) supplied a Mark IVA watch with a movement of this design that was marked with its own BILLODES trademark. (Later examples were marked Octava in the standard manner).

Unmarked Swiss gilt-finished 8-day movement

Swiss 8 Day movement with straight line lever escapement and compensated balance.

The lack of markings means that neither the manufacturer nor the calibre has yet been identified, although all dials have ‘Swiss Made’ to them, so we can assume a Swiss movement.

Serial numbers are stamped clearly to the main movement plate in a standard fashion, allowing broad sequencing to be discerned.

This movement is only seen in the Mark IVA watch.

(Eterna) Swiss gilt-finished 8-day movement

Swiss 8 Day movement with straight line lever escapement and compensated balance.

This distinctive movement has been seen in watches marketed under the Eterna trademark.

Serial numbers are stamped to the base plate of the movement, allowing broad sequencing to be established.

This movement was supplied uniquely by H Williamson for the Admiralty Mark II and Mark IVA watches. The movement is entirely different to the 7-jewel Astral movement that Williamson used for its General Service watches supplied to the British Army during WWI.

Douard Patent Swiss gilt-finished 8-day movement

Swiss 8 Day movement with straight line lever escapement and compensated balance.

The main movement plate has +7032 stamped to its edge. This denotes a Swiss patent for a new design of 8-day watch calibre (nouveau calibre de montre a huit jours de marche) granted on 19 July 1893 to Amédée Douard (pere) of Bienne, Switzerland. The patent claims a novel combination and arrangement of cogs in an 8-day watch movement.

The movements have serial numbers stamped to the dial face of the base plate, which is usually inaccessible.

This movement was used by Smiths to supply Admiralty Mark II watches.

Nomenclature to the dial

The dials carried as a minimum the name of the supplier and the spec that it fulfilled (eg Mark IVA). Individual serial numbers came to be applied later and most incorporated a letter code that identified the supplier. This letter code was superfluous where the supplier's name was written in full above the number but it was standard practice to mark all military equipment of the era in this way. The Mark V watches did not in fact carry manufacturer’s names to the dial, although branding did appear to the movements and/or cuvette and/or inner case back.

Luminous and non-luminous versions

All aviation watches appeared in both versions from the beginning.

British Watches, Pocket General Service

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For most of WWI, the standard British military issue was a 7 jewel pocket watch, supplied by established firms like H Williamson, H White, and W Ehrhardt. All but the Ehrhardt were cased by Dennison (Ehrhardt being an established case maker in its own right).

Once the USA came on board, 7 jewel Elgin pocket watches were supplied also, c 1917.

Watches issued to the Royal Artillery need to be considered separately because they were entirely different (eg some hacked).

A Corporal of the Border Regiment wounded in the Somme battles of July 1916 mentions his issued pocket watch in an IWM interview: I can remember an RAMC man looking at me and saying: 'He won't live long...' and he took my watch out of my breast pocket - my official watch, suspended on a leather strap. Royal Army Medical Corps? Royal Army Robbing Corps more like!. To be fair to the maligned, removal of valuable officially issued items may have been a standing order in those circumstances.

British Watches, Wristlet

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To include what ZMW describes as the ‘1917 evaluation issue’:

• the 38mm snap back;
• the various Dennison cased screw-back watches (3 distinct types).

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