• Apprentice
    8 Apr 2018, 2:41 p.m.

    I have done a decent amount of research online. This watch was originally purchased from the United Kingdom, made its way back to Schaffhausen, and now it's traveling the world with me!

    Based on my research, it is a watch IWC made in 1952 for the military, however, the more research I do its hisotry starts to get muddy. Initially I was told it was made for the British military, but the more I read the less confident I am that is correct. It seems that IWC supplied a number of military watches to a number of countries. I included a picture of the box that came with the watch. perhaps this will help. The box, assuming it actually goes with this watch, would seem that it is a country other than Britan.

    Any information on its history would be really appreciated!!

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    Below you can see some of the WW 2 watches the Britan's Ministry of Defense had contracted to be made. Mine is obviously not one of these as the time period is much later. IWC watch is on the bottom row, third from the right./site_media/ckeditor_images/bcba41cca61c7a906ccc3f6cbdd5996b.jpg

  • Master
    8 Apr 2018, 5:56 p.m.
  • Connoisseur
    8 Apr 2018, 9:31 p.m.

    Dear Jesse

    1) Yes, IWC did supply different watches to different armed forces. But the w.w.w. you uploaded pictures of are for the British Army. The Mk. 11 was issued to Air Force personell. You can't conclude from watches made for and issued to ground forces on navigational wrist watches for air navigation.
    2) We all here on the forum, some with a "history" as collector of several decades, have rarely to never seen a Mk. 11 sitting in a box it was issued in. Which indication do you have, the box and the watch have been united already while the box saw military service? All original boxes I saw show the Store-Ref. No. respectively the NSN. I cant see such imprint/sticker on your box. So from what I see from your pics, this is no military stores box including the fact, that the original boxes normally are quite cheap card board boxes, not that well executed as yours.
    3) At least the dial and maybe the hands are not original. Is it likely, that a watch got a non-mil dial while still sitting in its original box.

    Regards Th. Koenig

  • Apprentice
    9 Apr 2018, 12:01 a.m.

    Rave and Th. Koening, thank you for your help. I attached some new pictures below that might help in identification. I can understand why you would say the face has been replaced, since it does not have the arrow on the face. I was told it was an all orginial, box-kept, 1952 MoD pilots watch, and that the only not-original part on or in it was the band. I have some seen some watches claiming to be Autrailian RAF that had this face, but they were from 1957. Most MoD watches that I saw from the late 40's to early 50's did have the arrow on the face.  

    So, do you still believe it is a 1952 Mark 11 with new-old-stock civilian components to "refurbish" it?

    Either way, I am happy with it and enjoy having a piece of history in a medium that I personally relate to.

    Here are closer up pictures of my watch:
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    Here is an 1952 MoD watch that I believe has the face you were looking for with the arrow on the face:
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    Here is an older Austrailian RAF watch from 1957:
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  • Apprentice
    9 Apr 2018, 11:16 a.m.

    So, I believe that I have resolve this with the help of the two who posted on this. What happened to my watch is that it was sent in for service to IWC and they replaced the face and hands with what are called "Service Parts."  The internal workings and back are orginal, but the hands and face are no longer orginal.

    I'm going to start to look for the orginal parts now!