Eterna Big Pilot 40mm

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Large Eterna Pilot watch.jpg
Eterna Large Pilot movement.jpg
Bezel Insert Removed
Les Historiques remake 1993



An incredibly rare over sized Big Pilot watch with a rotating bezel dating to 1936. Only 2 known to exist. What makes this watch particularly unusual is it's large 40 mm diameter case, which at the time resided only in very few pilot watches, the Longines Lindbergh watches being another exception.

this example sold at Christies Auction House in 2010.

Listed as the following:

Eterna. A large and attractive stainless steel military wristwatch with black dial Signed Eterna, movement no. 2'701'281, case no. 2'433'595, manufactured in 1936 Cal. 12 520 nickel finished lever movement, 15 jewels, black dial, luminous Arabic numerals, luminous hands, engine-turned subsidiary seconds, enlarged inner revolving bezel with luminous Arabic numerals, large circular case, snap on back, case, dial and movement signed 40 mm. diam.


Both watches have been acknowledged by Eterna's Archivist to reside in their ledgers. Movement image is from the other known example, which dates that watch to 1938, with a Movement serial of 273****

in 1993 Eterna brought out their Les Historiques range of watches. The 'Airforce 1' clearly representing as a copy of the original 1936 watch. Though in this case featuring a secondary crown for rotating the bezel. This may indicate that they where working off an archive image of only the front view.

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