WWW Military IWC Mark X (The dirty Dozen)1944-48
This vintage
IWC is one of the worlds most important military issue timepieces from one of
the worlds most important manufacturers. This is a hand wound watch from WW II
which was issued to troops in the early part of 1945. In the early 1940s the
British Armed forces compiled a set of specifications for military watches that
they wanted to supply to their troops. The twelve companies that produced
watches that were accepted by the Ministry of Defence (as in, these watches met
their specifications), would later become known, among collectors, as the dirty
dozen. The Mark X name was adopted by all the manufacturers and in 1944 the IWC
Mark X was issued to the military for service. All 12 manufacturers delivered
about 150,000 of those watches to the British military while only 6,000 were
delivered by IWC starting with case number 1,131,001.
As one of the
Dirty dozen military watches, this one is unique as instead of screw back,
it is a two part steel case with a snap
on back. IWC used a lead seal between the case and the case back to prevent water ingress. It has a satin middle body and polished bezel which has fixed (spring) bar.
The
watch Measures 35 mm wide (not including the crown) x 42.5 mm long x 10 mm
thick and had 18mm lugs. They were equipped with the great calibre
83 movement. A 12-lignes (26.5mm) movement with either 15 or 16 jewels, which
had a bimetallic screw balance and a Breguet hairspring, and ran at 18,000 vph.
The calibre 83 was finely tuned and delivered excellent results while being at
the same time extremely reliable and rugged. For 4 years
it was used by a variety of military personnel including RAF pilots and
navigators.
I was lucky to
find this lovely IWC mark X from Roeland from : www.vtgwatch.com For those of
you who wants to look for nice vintage watches, you can write to Roeland, a
very reliable seller. Remember, when buying vintage watches, you buy the
seller's reputation.
Dirty Dozen :
Buren, Cyma, Eterna,Grana,IWC, JLC,Lemania,Longines,Omega,Record,Timor,Vertex
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