Any existing scheme?

In the thirties and fourties the Brits bought ATP wristwatches, numerous
brands no IWC. At the same time the Germans bought DH service watches,
numerous brands, no IWC.

Before and during WW II: Royal Navy H.S. 3 center second deck watches,
numerous brands amongst them IWC, and German Luftwaffe "Big Pilots", numerous
brands, amongst them IWC. 6B/159 navigational wrist watches, numerous brands,
no IWC

After WW II: w.w.w. numerous brands, basically the same requirements regarding
the movement accuracy than with 6B/159, this time IWC amongst the procured
brands. Mk. 11 only two brands, IWC and JLC, no Omega, Longines, Zenith,
Vacheron etc. Later on G.S. Service Watches, first OMEGA, than Smiths.

So, what where the criteria to choose which brand? Price, availability, good
relations to decision makers?

Th. Koenig

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133882255424?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11604.m43.l3160&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=51a79c875dc845e687e1f634edf4600e&bu=43173797706&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20211031030134&segname=11604&sojTags=ch%3Dch%2Cbu%3Dbu%2Cosub%3Dosub%2Ccrd%3Dcrd%2Csegname%3Dsegname%2Cchnl%3Dmkcid

Unbelievably the silver/white malgamation executed on this longines dial is
exactly (pin point) the colour of my white dial iwc...theyve both got similar
crummy signatures and seem to have a black twin...does anybody know what the
odds would be in a bookmakers for this chance occurence.

My educated guess: The watch on ebay is one of the 1956 recase watches.
Presumably the new case caused the need for a new dial. Both. black and white
dials with 6B/159 recases are known. So to me it looks like a re-dial in 1956,
the new dial made by an UK dialmaker. And that would result in the conclusion
your white dial IWC got a re-dial from the same UK dialmaker.

But I have to admit 1956 6B/159 re-casing is not my field of expertise.

Regards

Koenig

P.S.Unfortunately this interesting discussion leaves my original question
unanswered, why the armed forces of different countries sometimes went for IWC
and sometimes for other brands although probably IWC (and other wll-known
brands like OMEGA or LONGINES) would have been able to serve the requirements
of all these different types of watches in a period, where all companies
probably were seeking for high volume order from armed forces.

Thanks for that TK....it really does appear the british required a white &
black dial in the '50's and they were not shy to use non inca'd stock.

I somehow surmised my dial was not the creation of a humorous german surplus
dealer....got that Brit look about it.

Well Catherine.

According to RGO documents the RGO people were not really fond of Smiths, not
the Mk. 11 prototype, not the G.S. 6B/542. So in the mid 1950s decision was
made instead of buying more Smith DeLuxe 6B/542 to recase the best 6B/159,
i.e. OMEGA, JLC and LONGINES.

So it appears in fact a decision against Smiths, not pro watches without Inca.
Only in 1962, when it came to the decision to decommission the JLC Mk. 11 the
lacking shock protection was raised as a topic of relevance. But the RGO just
from the beginning didn't like the JLC as well for several reasons.

Th. Koenig

Thanks for that TK....i wouldnt want a iwc mk 10.5 with an inca....or an
omega, longines and jlc.