Watches of the German armed forces from 1914

Imperial era, World War I and Weimar Republic (Source: Konrad Knirim "Military Time Pieces")

In the Kaiser’s time, i.e. before 1918, there were already excellent marine clocks for determining location. These include, above all, the marine chronometers from Hamburg, Altona, Berlin, and, of course, Glashütte in Saxony. Stephan Ciejka reports that in 1880, the German Navy ordered gold watches with gold bracelets from Girard Perregaux of La Chaud de Fonds. These were pocket observation watches, which were engraved with a crown, an 'M,' and a four-digit naval number on the back of the silver case.

A curiosity is actually the small torpedo boat Chronometer by Lange & Söhne for the Austrian Navy. Only 60 were built, of which 20 were never delivered and were dispersed among collectors. I find this curious because people are no longer aware that the land power Austria-Hungary had a navy in the port of Trieste in Slovenia.

I recently acquired a very beautiful ship's wall clock from 'A. Schuchmann Wilhelmshaven' with the same black lacquered brass case as the later clocks from World War II. This clock is signed on the dial with the Imperial Navy symbol, the crown above the M, and the naval number.

The first military pilots had pocket watches with the crown facing down, designed to hang in an aircraft cockpit. They were signed 'Property of the Air Force' and 'PuW', and featured a propeller with blades. Often with an iron case and not always in good condition, but some with a good nickel case. I can't interpret the additional signature 'Kreis W. Berlin W.'

I don't know whether watches were officially procured for the army, as I haven't found any official signatures. I have seen civilian pocket watches with engravings like: 'The best distance estimator' or 'We Germans fear God and nothing else in the world' and 'Christmas 1916 in the field' or with a picture of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Old advertisements suggest that the German troops already had wristwatches in the form of so-called trench watches with protective grilles: for example, there was the brand 'Mars', just as war-related fantasy names appeared later, such as 'Bellum' (Latin for 'To the war') or, in further variation, 'Rellum'.

The Reichswehr and Reichsmarine of the Weimar Republic

The impact of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles on the production of navigation clocks was dramatic. Germany was forced to surrender almost all naval vessels and all merchant vessels larger than 1,600 tons, as well as a quarter of its fishing fleet. It wasn't until 1924 that a gradual revival began, after the value of the dollar had risen to 4.2 trillion Reichsmarks in 1923, and unemployment in Glashütte reached 85%.

I know of very few signed watches from the Reichswehr, the 'Hundred Thousand Man Army' as defined by the Treaty of Versailles. The B-watches of the Imperial Navy continued to be used, some of them bearing the new Weinmar eagle and new M registration. However, new models, particularly pocket chronographs, such as those from Löbner, and stopwatches (torpedo knives) from Minerva, were also introduced into the Reichsmarine.

German aviation after "Versailles"

The Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919, granted the German Reich, which had been defeated in the First World War, a 100,000-strong Reichswehr. However, the same treaty strictly prohibited Germany from owning any type of aircraft. The air units established since the armistice of November 11, 1918, had to be disbanded. Some air squadrons, which had still been granted to the German police, also had to be abandoned in the spring of 1920 in fulfillment of the treaty.

The blanket ban on any flying activity created a reaction that was certainly not contemplated by the planners of the Treaty of Versailles. German pilots complied with the regulations, but they flew anyway.

However, there were many pilot's watches in the 1920s and 1930s, mostly with chrome-plated or nickel cases, relatively wide lugs, and some with hinged lids or knurled screws. I own a few with fancy names, but they were also available from renowned Swiss brands like Omega, Longines, and Zenith, as clearly visible in old advertisements. This type of watch was also available from IWC (Cal. 83) in steel, but also in a version that probably didn't originate from the factory, but was made with movements from ladies' pocket watches and purchased cases.

I know that as late as the mid-1930s, such Zenith watches were issued to pilots in the German Air Force. Wrist chronographs of the same type and with this case shape were also built and used, such as Breitling (Cal. Venus 711 AU) and Heuer (Cal. Valjoux 22).

The "Third Reich" and the rearmament of the Wehrmacht

Watches for the military were only acquired with the rearmament of the Wehrmacht and by the National Socialist government: Kriegsmarine (KM), Reichs Luftfahrtministerium (RLM) and the Deutsches Heer (DH).

Navy:

The best overview of the Kriegsmarine's watches is provided by 'Service Instruction No. 2456 of January 1945', which is illustrated in Steffen Röhner's booklet 'Military Pocket Watches'.

Abstract:

	Chronometry devices		stopwatch
a)	marine chronometer	e)	Stopwatches
b)	B-Chronometer	f)	Stopwatches
c)	B-watches 1st class	G)	Artillery B-watches with stop hand
d)	B-watches 2nd class
	Marine special watches		Utility watches
h)	Submarine hunting watches	k)	Large Marine Wall Clocks
i)	Watch clocks	l)	Small Marine - Wall Clocks
		m)	Service wristwatches

(The special timers required by the torpedo testing institutes are not listed here.)

This list is of great value to the watch enthusiast, as it allows for a targeted collection of completeness. It's impressive how bureaucratically the number of watches of a particular type was prescribed for each ship type.

A large portion of the watches came from Glashütte near Dresden, with its famous pocket watch tradition, particularly from A. Lange & Söhne. I also recently saw a B-Uhr with a naval imperial eagle from Assmann. The German Maritime Observatory had set up a branch in Gesundbrunnen near Glashütte far from the coast for chronometer testing. Many marine watches were manufactured on the coast, the most famous being the 'Chronometerwerke Hamburg' manufactory, later Wempe. Towards the end of the war, marine chronometers were standardized and built as 'standard chronometers' by both Wempe and Lange. When the production of chronometer movements could no longer meet the required production volumes, Glashütte also incorporated the pocket watch Caliber 48 into a chronometer case, the famous Lange B-Chronometer.

In addition to German B-watches and chronometers, Swiss models were also used, such as the very beautiful Marine Chronometer from Ulysse Nardin or the B-watches from IWC, Ulysse Nardin or Vacheron & Constantin.

The Navy also used some special watches for specific requirements, such as the 'U-Hunting' stopwatch with its special scales for approach and water depth. It was used on surface ships for submarine hunting with depth charges. For naval service, there were also simple pocket watches and wristwatches from German and Swiss manufacturers (Alpina, Berg, Zentra, Cortébèrt, Solvil, etc.). Like the Hanhart pocket chronograph used by the naval artillery, these were marked 'KM' on the dial.

Combat Diver Watches

I'd like to mention one special feature: 'Kampfschwimmer watches', diving watches for the so-called frogmen, are collector's delights. The German Navy only took the initiative in 1944, when the battleship Tirpitz was damaged by British midget submarines. The K-Verband, the 'Command of Small Ordnance of the Navy', which included combat swimmers, manned torpedoes, etc., was founded in Heiligenhafen. The Reich Security Main Office had already been working closely with the Italian Abwehr and the 'Marina Reale' in 1942. Through this connection, equipment that had proven successful with the Italians, such as the Rolex combat swimmer watches, was also supplied to German combat groups. Some were unsigned, but some bore the combat swimmers' own engravings. In addition to supporting Italian groups such as 'DECIMA' (X. MAS) in mining British ports in the Mediterranean (Gibraltar, Valletta, Alexandria), German combat swimmer groups were deployed in the Rhine at the end of the war, for example, to blow up the Nijmegen Bridge, which had fallen into Allied hands. These activities were extremely secret, so there were no official signatures.

Reich Air Force

The Reich Aviation Ministry commissioned the development of aircraft onboard clocks, some with chronograph functions, large aviator observation watches with pocket watch movements and central seconds, and pilot chronographs. The first wristwatches, some of which experimented with converted pocket chronograph movements (Valjoux 61 or Longines) due to the central seconds, were signed 'RLM'. These early watches often had a case pusher for setting the hands. There were also individual pieces with degree graduations (Lange) or very rare examples from Patek Philippe and Vacheron & Constantin. The later five series types were available with two different dials: hour numerals without a minute track, as well as a small hour dial and a large minute track. They were classified 'FL 23883'. In the FL number, 22 stood for flight surveillance, 23 for navigation equipment, and 25 for communications equipment. In addition, there were devices no. 127-560B (or A).

The Armband B watches from IWC, Lange & Söhne, Wempe, Walter Storz, and Lacher & Co. were and remain horological delicacies. They were regulated as navigation watches and individually tested for chronometer quality by the Maritime Observatory in Gesundbrunnen near Glashütte. They were worn by pilots on a long strap over their flight uniforms.

A particularly large example of Lange's bracelet B watch frequently appears in auction catalogs. The dial is signed 'W SS' and the minute track is printed in reverse. Göring himself is said to have owned such a watch. The authenticity of this signature is questionable, as the Waffen-SS only recognized the SS runes.

Just as the Navy had its own service instructions, the Air Force also had similar regulations: 'Description, Operating and Maintenance Instructions for Air Force Watches' (L.Dv. 253) from 1939.

Abstract:-

• Soil chronometers are time-keeping mother or standard clocks of the individual soil organizations.
• B - Clocks are observation clocks for the purposes of astronomical navigation
• Onboard clocks are used to display the time of day and mark specific points in time (e.g., takeoff time). Designations: Bo UK 1 or II
• Blind flight clocks are used to determine intermediate times accurate to the second. (Bo UK 2 - 1 and 3)
• Time transmission clocks are used to transmit the absolute time of day from the time-keeping master clock to the clocks of the individual aircraft.
• Stopwatches are timers. They are used, for example, in bomb aiming devices.
• Continuous shutter clocks are used for the direct registration of measurement and recording times on films in continuous shutter cameras.

Aircraft clocks were divided into 8-day clocks with a rotating bezel and 'blind flight clocks', i.e., clocks with a chronograph for short-time measurement (seconds and 15 or 60 minutes) or, as with the 'Schlenker Grusen', with a large second hand and a 36-hour running time. Both types generally had a 4-hole mounting, but there were also 3-hole, bayonet, and screw-in versions for installation in the dashboard. The 8-day clocks were mostly installed in transports like the JU 52 and bombers like the Ju 88 or HE 111, while the chronographs were installed in fighters like the ME 109.

The well-known aviator chronographs from Hanhart and Tutima are not listed, although they were officially issued to fighter pilots, particularly Stukas. I haven't seen any examples with an FL... number yet, but I have seen them with a naval eagle. These chronographs have a 'flyback' function, meaning the stopwatch hands can be reset during operation without first stopping. This was also a requirement of the West German and French Air Force for a long time.

My watchmaker is always impressed by the Tutima's movement (Breguet hairspring...). There are also a few early Tutima examples with an arrow on the bezel and a gold-plated movement.

I know of three different chronographs from Hanhart: one with one pusher and one with two pushers, both with and without a rotating bezel. The single-pusher movement is also used in the naval artillery stopwatch. The cases are made of nickel-plated bronze; the steel case was first introduced in the 1950s.

I found two examples of the Hanhart chronograph that, after the Luftwaffe, were used by the 'Kasernierte Volks-Polizei' (engraved with 'MdI' = Ministry of the Interior of the GDR) and then by the NVA (National People's Police) for many years. Unfortunately, such pieces, once they could no longer be repaired, were scrapped and not given to hobbyists and collectors.

The manufacturers of Luftwaffe watches, such as wristwatches, chronographs, and aircraft clocks, were located in Glashütte (Lange, Tutima), as well as in the Black Forest (Hanhart, Kienzle, Junghans), and in Switzerland. However, the German manufacturers also had some production facilities in other parts of the country, including Bohemia.

Lange & Söhne could no longer meet the demand for B-watches itself, so the movements and cases were delivered to other watchmakers for assembly and fine-tuning: Huber in Munich, Felsing in Berlin, Schieron in Stuttgart, Schätzle and Tschudin in Pforzheim, and Wempe in Hamburg. Wempe and Storz purchased the movements for their B-watches in Switzerland (Thommen and Unitas).

After the war, the Black Forest belonged to the French zone, so that Hanhart in Schwenningen am Neckar was able to continue building the chronographs under the name Vixa for the 'L'Armee Francaise' and the Indochina War, just as many German soldiers and former members of the Waffen-SS were recruited from French captivity for the Foreign Legion and fought in Indochina.

German Army

The army provided bags and wristwatches for officers or special officials. These were supplied according to specified specifications by a variety of Swiss and German manufacturers and garment manufacturers (Titus, Alpina, Mulco, Silvana, Minerva, Record, Arsa, Büren, Zenith, Longines, etc.).

Both the pocket watches and the wristwatches had screwed-down backs and shock protection. The dial was black with radium-luminous numerals and hands. The back was engraved with DH, 'German Army.' These watches were sometimes issued and entered in the pay book, but were also sold to soldiers. The Army and Navy artillery had pocket chronographs and stopwatches for measuring sound propagation times.

In addition to the aforementioned pocket and wristwatches, the Army also had Kienzle station clocks. These hinged, built-in clocks were like on-board clocks, but had a wooden case for tabletop use or hanging in a radio car. These station clocks were also used by the Luftwaffe (FL 25591) and the Kriegsmarine, both with the Imperial Eagle on the dial, each with a very similar wooden case.

I have seen two beautiful examples in natural wood cases which, according to the sellers' reports, were used in the radio room of the OKW (High Command of the Wehrmacht) and in the Army Officers' School in Dresden.

This kind of information is a good example of how, when searching for such collectibles, especially in East Germany, I often still stumble upon the authentic history of the pieces, as the now elderly men involved describe their personal wartime experiences in their living rooms. I also received a wristwatch that a former soldier was carrying while buried in the war, which he managed to save from Russian captivity. I'm delighted that such personal items are entrusted to me. Even my own heirs probably wouldn't hold them in the same esteem as a passionate collector.