Eaglemoss Military Watches Collection.

During WWII the Italian Regia Aeronautica was split into two, the North fought with the Axis forces and was called the Aeronautica Nazionale Republicana (ANR) and the souths Aviation Cobelligerante Italiana (ACI) supported Allied operations. Total loses on both sides exceded 9000 personel and 5000 aircraft.
It was only in 1946 when Italy became a republic that the combined Italian Air Force was renamed the Aeronautica Militare. Italy became a founding member of NATO and the AM pilots were soon training in modern American jets, and were part of the consortium that built the F-104 Starfighter, a Supersonic ground/air attack fig​​hter​​. ​​
The Financial support of belonging to NATO meant better equipment could be specified, this included a number of Zenith watches supplied by A, Cairelli, of the 2500 produced not all were delivered and some examples found today do not have military markings



Case
Polished 45.4mm case, 48mm with crown, 52mm lug to lug 22mm wide
Interior aperture 38.7mm across, 10.8mm deep. 6mm Crown 35mm flat glass​.
Bezel 43mm in diameter, black insert with white markings, triangle at 12, batons at 5 minute intervals and Arabic numerals at the quarters​
Case engraved with watch description.
Dial
35​.5​mm matt black dial​ with​ ​tan/orange ​printing.
Arabic ​hour ​numerals from 1 through 12 inclusive​, minutes shown as 5 minute increments.​​
​Polished baton style hours and minutes hands filled with ​white luminous paint, ​straight slim seconds hand​.
Strap
​PU leather 2​2mm wide, ​narrows to ​20mm polished buckle. approx. fitting 1​95-2​35​mm


Close up of the hands, slightly rough lume application shows round the edges

The original Zenith watches that were supplied by A, Cairelli