VIRTUAL POCKET WATCH MUSEUM DAY 34, Corps of Engineers

Those that know me and my collecting style are largely aware that as a general
rule I do not collect military timepieces.

Having said that, I do find that Tonny made and excelent choice today, by
selectiong to post his COE timepiece, as it is a very significant bit of
history that surrounds these watches. As Tonny already mentions, Thomas
Koenig (undoubltly one of the worlds leading experts in this regard) wrote
here on the forum before regarding these watches.

However, such is the importance of these timepieces that his articles on this
have also been published in the NAWCC Bulletin of March/April 2014.

(credit Thomas Koenig).

Such was the need in those times by the USA Corps of Engineers for timepieces,
that they also placed orders with other Companies for these watches. As seen
in the two examples here below.

Some years back, and after hearing personally from Thomas himself of the
importance of these Ulysse Nardin COE by IWC watches, in the history of IWC I
decided that my collection should bear at least one of these watches.

The Watch

The COE in my Collection is from the 1st series of COE watches that IWC built,
and falls in the case back numbering range of 5000 - 6,700;

Namely watch # 6097

As seen in the picture here below, the watch had as we say in perverbal
English " been through the wars ", and the case;

Being of 0.800 German Silver as we see above, had become all smooth, shiny and
non military like in appearance.

In addition, note how the radioactive paint on the dial has discolored the
pexiglass crystal that had somewhere over it's 100 year lifespan been fitted
to the watch.

Clearly, this was not the intention, and some research into the original
"blackening" process had to be conducted, in order to restore this watch and
case back to it's original intention.

We are happy with the results, and I share here a close up / zoom shot of the
case and crown neck so that the reader can decide for themselves as to the
quality of the restoration of the case.

The case back, is as intended too I believe.

- As a point of note: Please know, that the dial needs restoration - however,
the radioactive lume used makes the restoration team nervous.

In this regard, I call on Adrian to share some of his findings and knowledge
around this topic of radioactive dials, with us here.

Thomas Koenig published also an extensive article about the American 'Corps of
Engineers' watches in 'Klassik Uhren', way to extensive to reproduce here and
because he is the author, somebody else should not reproduce it here. But
there is also a short article that he wrote with Friedrich Wagener in 2006 and
in which the task of the Corps of Engineers has been described. Many Corps
military personnel arrived very late in Europe during the summer of 1918 close
to the end of WW I . The main task of the Corps was a logistic one. Enormous
supplies of goods arrived in the French sea ports, to support the troops at
the front line. The Corps built depots but also constructed their own railway
network. For this huge operation they also needed watches in chronometer
quality and as Tonny describes : not less than 10.000 were ordered mainly from
Swiss manufacturers : Vacheron & Constantin, Ulysse Nardin and Zenith. To
bring the huge order to a good end, subcontractors were involved : IWC, Moser,
Movado. When the watches were ready, the war was practically over.

It is about the same story as happened to the 'dirty dozen watches ordered by
the MoD, to be used in WW II. Also these came too late, includung the IWC.
w.w.w. Many of the Corps of Engineers watches ended in depots exactly what
happened with the dirty dozen watches.

Regards,

Adrian,

(alwaysiwc).

Dear Adrian

I assume Mark refers to your article on radio luminiscence.

The most neglected topic with these dials is not radium. Wearing a mask (alike
these days in the public) and cleaning your hands and bench carefully you can
handle Radium. The problem is, that the decay of Radium results in radioactive
Radon gas, which is able to penetrate acrylic crystals. Radon unfortunately is
the most frequent reason for lung cancer except for smoking. Therefore storing
such watches you should obeye three rules: (i) ventilating, (ii) ventilating
(iii) ventilating.

Regards

Thomas

Thomas, finally the mystery solved behind this photo.

But jokes aside, I was NOT aware of the gas issue.

Dear Thomas and Mark,

The discussion about the danger of radioluminescent watch dials is still
ongoing and a subject of controversies. I have written an artcle about the
radioluminiscent dials of IWC dials and I have measured the different types of
radiation in the nuclear department of my hospital. With many others I concur
that watches with radium painted dials and hands have to be handled with care.
They should not be opened by the owner. However, in the article I show that
the danger of direct radiation to the body by wearing such watch is strongly
exagerated. I believe the article has been published also on the forum here,
but I cannot find it back. Can you Tonny?

Something else is the danger of leaking radioactive radon outside the watch.
The gas radon is mixing with the air inside the house and could be therefore a
potential danger. Thomas states that the radioactive radon (and its decoy
products) is the second cause of lung cancer in the US. Without starting a
scientific medical discussion, such data have to be handled with care. Lung
cancer is a multifactorial disease with an incubation period of decades. Radon
in the house comes predominantly from natural rock, stone and construction
materials such as concrete. Patients in whom lung cancer has been diagnosed
and who have lived in houses contaminated with radon were in most cases also
smokers. As everybody knows , smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer (
80%). Secondhand smoking, smog, asbestos are other factors.

Now the question is : how dangerous is the leaking radon from radium painted
watch dials? David Boettscher recently published an article in Horological
Journal and warns about the higher quantity of radon gas, measured in his own
house. David has a significant collection of military watches with radium
dials, which were painted before 1920.The levels of radioactivity in the room
where his collection is stored was above the acceptable health level. As a
consequence he installed a ventilation unit to refresh the inside air more
effectively. So, what can be said pro and con to collect radium watches and
how significant are the scientific data?

It is known that the MoD banned all radium painted watches after WW II. It is
even so that in British war museums no radium painted watches and cockpit
clocks are displayed. The reason MoD banned is the huge pile of thousands of
radium watches stored after the war in one room, being together a kind of
ticking 'nuclear' bomb. So the numbers are important. One or two watches will
not make the difference is my personal opnion.

The American Cancer Society reports the danger of radon as a cause of lung
cancer but at the same time points out that patients with radon induced lung
cancer were in most of the cases also heavy smokers. The ACS states : "There
are no widely available medical tests to measure whether you have been exposed
to radon. If you smoke and have been exposed to higher level of radon it is
important to try to quite smoking. The combined effects of cigarette smoking
and radon exposure raise the risk of lung cancer much more than either
exposure alone" There are no reports of any cancer society in any country
advicing to get rid of radium watches or to improve ventilation in store
places. There are no reports of any collectors who have developed lung cancer
because they collect 'hazardous' watches.

For me the danger of radium watches is not focussed on the collector owner. It
is about what happens afterwards. Most of the radium watches have stopped to
'glow in the dark ' because of the destroy of the ZnS molecules ( for which
radium is the accelerator), after a few decades. Such watch might not be
recognised by the generations to come. It may be considered as 'nice watch(es)
from grandfather' to be kept as a memory of long times long ago but ignorant
to the fact that the danger of the unaffected radium will last for another
1500 years.

Regards,

Adrian,

(alwaysiwc).

Adrian, many thanks for sharing this information with us.

As I wrote in my post, these watches do have a place in the history and legacy
of IWC as well, and I shall cherish and maintain my COE for what it is.

I now need to go in seatch of David Boettcher's article.

Dear all

I have not been aware of the Radon topic for decades. When I realised it I
bought a Radon meter.

The tightest recommendation of any authority I know is to avoid a
concentration of more than 100 Bq per cubicmetre, the highest still in force
400 Bq per cbm (mainly referring to houses build in areas where the ground
releases radon as is the case in in parts of southwest Germany, Switzerland
and Norway). During winter, when the windows normally stay closed, it takes
about a week and the concentration has risen to 200 to 300 Bq per cubicmetre
in a room of normal size. I made a test, got some more watches from the bank
safe and did not ventilate for a month. The result was over 1,000 Bq/cbm. Then
I locked a Radon metre in my bank safe together with the watches and within a
fortnight the concentration went up to more than 8,000 Bq/cbm. Once aware of
this fact I started to ventilate regularly and so in the winter I'm in the
100s or low 200ds, in spring, summer and autum clearly below 100. No
ventilation device or so mounted. Simply opening the window from time to time
and keeping an eye on the Radon meter. I heard of fellow collectors who
experienced similar results and were quite scared when realising their bedroom
showed concentrations in the high three digit to middle four digit area.

I'm pretty sure no physician (except for Adrian) is aware of the fact, that
watches (or other vintage and antique items) may produce Radon in quantities
exceeding health & safety recommendations. So of course there are no case
studies. In the end it is of no importance, if the Radon concentration results
from gas pouring out of the ground or out of your watches. In the end you
should try to stay under the health & safety limits for your own sake. But on
the other hand it is not really hard to regularly open a window.

Regards

Th. Koenig

Adrian, Thomas, what an educational post for me.

Thanks for sharing this really interesting aspect of our hobby.

Yes, many thanks to all the contributions here, very informative indeed!

When the US entered into WW I and sent the AEF (American Expeditionary Forces)
to Europe the US Corps of Engineers (CoE) amongst others got two major tasks
assigned.

On the one hand the CoE was responsible for the supply of the troops with
food, clean water and all kinds of other supply. For that reason the CoE run
its on railway lines in France, warehouses and even slaughter houses and the
biggest plant for producing ice in the world. With respect to their train
services the CoE stuck to what it knew from peace times: Hamilton calibre 992
railroad grade pocket watches were used.

On the other hand it was during peacetime in the US and now during WW I in
France a major task of the CoE to produce maps allowing the commanding
officers to work with maps showing the current situation with newly build
roads and houses, destroyed bridges and trenches and military emplacements
along the front line. For that reason the equipment of the tool waggons
comprised a box "Chest Sketching Equipment" with a foldable table to produce
sketches, a compass and a clinometer plus a watch. The 1917 US Corps of
Engineers Field Manual describes, that the watch was used to measure
distances: The time needed to walk from point A to point B was deemed to be a
more precise method than the numbers of steps it takes to walk from point A to
pount B.

Here some pics of this box and its content:

Thomas,

Information anddetails that none of us know.

When you retire you can start your own war museum !

Adrian,

(alwaysiwc).