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Thread: Eaglemoss Military Watches Collection.

  1. #21
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    Issue 17 - 1940s French Navy

    During the years after WW2 the French Navy began a period of rebuilding, there was large scale investment in high quality ancillary equipment, including wristwatches.
    Senior ranks and personnel who's role required accurate timekeeping were supplied with the official 'Marine Nationale' watch, procured from Longines.




    Case
    Brushed SS 33mm case, 35.4mm with crown, 40.5mm lug to lug, 8.4mm deep.
    Case back engraved with description of the watch. 29.8mm flat glass.
    Dial
    White dial face black minute scale around outer ring, each fifth minute marked with small arabic numerals in black, hour numerals marked in pale green with black border.
    Sword style hours and minutes hands, gloss black border with green infill. Slim straight gloss black seconds hand. Lume on minute and hour hands only.
    Strap
    18mm black coloured, quality nylon strap, brushed Buckle, aprox 170-215mm fitting



    The strap is a far better quality than the usual MWC woven bands.
    In the picture below, the usual standard MWC band at the bottom has a loose weave, the French Navy band in the middle has a much tighter, weave similar in quality to the ZULU band at the top.

    Here is a size comparison with the issue 11 French foreign legion and the issue 16 Russian airman.

    The issue 16 and17 cases are very similar, perhaps to reflect the use of French machinery used at the First Moscow Watch Factory in this period.

  2. #22
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    Eaglemoss Military Watches Collection.

    Issue 18 - 1950s Egyptian Naval Commando

    During the mid 1950s Egypt ordered a special version of the Panerai Radiomir for their commando troops, designed for extreme underwater conditions the "Egiziano" had a monster 60mm riveted case, and the signature Panerai Crown guard.
    Sadly the Eaglemoss version is a poor representation of this iconic watch.



    Case
    Polished (possibly chromed) 47.2mm case, 49.7mm with crown, 52.1mm lug to lug, 9.3mm deep. Bezel has moulded fake rivets at hour intervals. 6mm dia grooved crown
    Case back engraved with description of the watch (misspelled as 'commander'). 35.2mm flat glass.
    Dial
    Black dial with green hour marks, Roman numerals at 3-6-9-12, no minute scale.
    Straight style hours and minutes hands with triangle tips, and green infill.
    Slim straight seconds hand.
    Lume on minute and hour hands only.
    Strap
    22mm mid brown coloured. nylon strap, polished Buckle, aprox 190-225mm fitting.
    Epson AL55a movement

    NB: If you do dismantle this watch please be aware that the dial is only 36.5mm across inside of a 41.6mm aperture.
    As you can see the dial appears to have adhered to the case rim and during dismantling the dial paint has peeled off, fellow forum members have also seen this effect to a greater degree, which has permanently damaged the dial.


    Here is a comparison with issue 5 Italian navy watch.


    The brown strap does the watch no favours, a quick change helps.

    Original 2/56 Egizianos are extremely rare, probably only 50 existed. Panerai have since released a run of 500 reproductions, the PAM00341.
    Customers include Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, you need a big wrist to carry a 60mm watch when you aren't wearing full scuba gear.
    The 341 is easy to spot as it has grooves around the bezel. Panerai are very protective of their designs, which maybe why the MWC version sadly doesn't look like this.

  3. #23
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    Eaglemoss Military Watches Collection.

    Issue 19 - 1970s US Navy Diver

    Issue 19 is based on the Benrus type1, standard issue for US Navy SEAL teams during the Vietnam war. Simple and reliable with Swiss ETA Movements they are virtually impossible to find on the collectors market, good quality replicas command four figure price tags. They were found to be expensive to produce and went out of use in favour of off the shelf alternatives.



    Case
    Polished (possibly chromed) 45mm asymmetric case, 46.mm including the partly recessed crown, 51.1mm lug to lug, 9.6mm deep. 38.3mm interior aperture.
    Non rotating 42.2 bezel has a black insert with silver coloured Roman numerals at hour intervals. 5mm dia grooved crown.
    Case back engraved with description of the watch. 31.2mm flat glass.
    Dial
    Black 32.5mm dial with embossed, luminous green hour marks with polished silver coloured borders. Triangle marker at 12, rectangular at 3-6-9, circles at other hour marks, white printed minute scale at outer edge.
    Pencil style hours and minutes hands with triangle tips, and luminous green infill.
    Slim straight seconds hand with luminous green arrow tip.
    Epson AL55a movement.
    Strap
    20mm black nylon strap with pvc bar loops (weak point?), polished Buckle, aprox 170-215mm fitting



    This is quite a good replica apart from the case, the original had a "parkerised" sandblasted finish to prevent reflections giving away the wearers location while on operations. The EM version is polished.
    Note that the case will only allow straight end links, like on this mesh bracelet.

  4. #24
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    Issue 20 - 1960 Brazilian Soldier.

    Our first Dress watch, and it's Gold too!
    Hardly a Military watch but according to the magazine a similar watches were presented as gifts to Officers in the Brazilian Army.
    This wasn't a watch for the troops, original swiss made versions would have been embossed with the head of Helvetia on the case back, and been made of 18-carat gold.


    Case
    Polished gold coloured plated 34.2mm case, 37.4mm including the crown, 40.mm lug to lug, 8mm deep. 30.2mm interior aperture.
    4.5mm dia gold coloured grooved crown.
    Case back engraved with "1960s Brazil Army". 29.4mm flat glass.
    Dial
    30mm Matt finish white dial with applied gold colour hour markers. Odd numbers are indicated by slim rhombus shapes, even numbers by Roman numerals, gold colour printed minute scale at outer edge.
    Slim tapered style hours and minutes hands with Slim straight seconds hand, polished golden finish.
    Strap
    18mm black padded PU leather (? not marked as leather) mock crocodile pattern strap tapers to 16.5mm polished gold colour Buckle, aprox 170-220mm fitting.
    Epson AL55a movement.


  5. #25
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    Issue 21 - 1980s French Naval Diver

    The French Navy started to use Tudor brand divers watches for Naval Divers and Marine Commandos in the 1960s.
    Tudor is a more affordable sub brand of Rolex, they use Swiss ETA or Valjoux movements but have similar styling.
    The specification of the watches used changed over time to a Blue Dial/Blue Bezel configuration from the 80s.




    Case
    Polished (possibly chromed) 40mm asymmetric case, 42mm including the recessed guarded crown, 46.6mm lug to lug, 11mm deep. 31.2mm interior aperture.
    Non rotating 39.4mm bezel has a dark metallic blue insert with silver coloured Arabic numerals at 10 minute intervals. 5mm dia grooved crown.
    Case back engraved with description of the watch. 30mm flat glass.
    Dial
    32.5mm dark blue enamel painted dial with green hour marks with white borders. Triangle marker at 12, rectangular at 3-6-9, squares at other hour marks, white printed minute scale at outer edge.
    Sword style hours hand, straight style minutes hand with triangle tip and thin straight seconds hand with a hexagonal shape near the tip. All have luminous green infill.
    Epson AL55a movement.
    Strap
    20mm dark mustard coloured PU backed fabric strap, polished Buckle, aprox 175-215mm fitting.


    Simple steel bracelet

    Of course what we have here is a very similar watch to the issue 3 British SBS watch, which represents a'Rolex MilSub'. Side by side, you get a polished case rather than brushed, but the dial is printed rather than embossed. The Sand PU/canvas strap on the 'Tudor' version feels to be much better quality than the Blue Nylon.

    Quite a large proportion of the collection so far have been 'Diver' style watches. Here are 8, including the Special edition.

  6. #26
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    Eaglemoss Military Watches Collection.

    Special edition 3 1990s USA NASA Astronaut.

    All American Apollo astronauts were issued with Omega Speedmaster Professionals.
    They were worn by Edward H. White on the first spacewalk and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. The regular strap was changed to a long Velcro strap so it could be worn over the Space Suits.
    'Flown' Speedmasters have real historic interest and many are on display, however Buzz Aldrin's "Moon" watch went missing on route to be displayed at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum.



    Case
    Polished 42mm case, 44.7mm with crown, 48.6mm lug to lug, 11.8mm deep.

    33.5mm flat glass, Steel back stamped with description of the watch.
    6mm grooved crown. 5mm smooth pushers.

    Bezel is inlaid black with silver coloured 'tachymetre' scale.
    Dial
    Black dial with white minute/seconds markers on the outside ring. Green printed rectangle hour marks.
    Three sub dials show, at 3, 24hour dial. At 6, chronograph seconds, and chronograph minutes at 9. All are marked with white on a black background, and have a concentric ring texture finish.
    Chromed hands with Green lume. Hours and minutes hand straight with triangular tip. Seconds hand chromed with arrow lume pip. Sub dial hands are simple chrome.
    Chronograph function
    One second chronograph. Pusher at 2 starts and stops chronograph. Pusher at 4 pauses, resumes and resets after stop.
    Date window at 4:30 position. Black Numerals on white background.
    Movement is a Sunon PE90, Hacking movement.
    Strap
    20mm Black textured leatherette strap, not leather, 'antiqued textured finish. Narrows to 18mm polished buckle, 185mm - 230mm fitting.

    Comes in a metal tin instead of the usual cardboard.

    At first glance this looks to be a nice addition to the collection, however under examination the functionality of the watch lets it down.
    Having the chronograph seconds on the sub dial and the main seconds run on the centre hand is a 'second best' option. Also centre seconds chronograph usually run at better than 1 seconds.
    The Tachymetre is practically impossible to use as the centre seconds hand is not controlled by the stopwatch pushers.
    Normally you would start the Tachymeter at a zero point then after a fixed distance, i.e. 1 mile, or a number of operations, i.e. 10 rotations of a gear, you stop the measurement by stopping the seconds hand, and calculate the number 'per hour' by reading the scale.
    Also the scale on my example is incorrectly marked, the 180 unit point should be adjacent to 20 second point, on mine it is nearer 22 seconds, other values are also incorrect, it would be very inaccurate to use indeed, particularly at high values.
    The chronograph also has no fly back and returns to Zero point by turning quickly running backwards if less than 30 minutes or forwards after 30 minutes, which takes quite some time.
    A couple of strap options, NATO and steel.


  7. #27
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    Eaglemoss Military Watches Collection.

    Issue 22 - 1940 Japanese Army

    Japanese armed forces were issued with watches made by the Seikosha Watch Company, A branch of Seiko.
    The original watch would have had a seconds hand sub dial at 6 o'clock, and either a 12 hour or 24 hour dial with the hours 13 to 24 printed in red on the inner scale.
    Some even had a secondary protective encasement. They would have been marked with a Star for the army; an Anchor for the Navy; and a Cherry blossom for the Air service.



    Case
    Polished 30.8mm , 33mm including the crown, 37mm lug to lug, 7.9mm deep. 27.5mm interior aperture.
    3.4mm dia grooved crown. Case back engraved with description of the watch. 25.5mm flat glass.
    Dial
    26.5mm white painted dial with black minute scale, green Arabic Numeral Hour marks with black borders, and smaller 24 hour indicators in red.
    "Mercedes" style hours hand, Breguet style minutes hand and thin straight seconds hand. Hours and Minutes hands have luminous green infill.
    Epson AL55a movement.
    Strap
    16mm tan coloured PU backed leatherette strap, with Antiqued finish, narrows to 14mm polished Buckle, aprox 175-215mm fitting.



    The watch is the smallest offered so far in the collection
    Here it is shown alongside the issue 11 French Foreign Legion watch

    And here on a cheap black leather strap...

    and a 16mm NATO I had to hand that matched nicely...

  8. #28
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    Issue 23 - 1970s Australian Soldier

    Almost 60,000 Australians served during the conflict in Vietnam. Australia were part of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation. (SEATO)
    During this time the Australian Army shared a lot of equipment with US forces including the Benrus watches already used by US infantry.
    Simple and robust the watch had a plastic case and fabric strap.




    Case
    Painted black to imitate the plastic, 40mm case 42.2mm including the crown, 47.5mm lug to lug, 9mm deep. 35.2mm interior aperture.
    5mm dia grooved crown. Case back engraved with description of the watch. 35.5mm flat glass.
    Dial
    34.9mm black painted dial with white minute scale, green triangle marks at 5 minute intervals, White Arabic Numeral Hour marks and smaller 24 hour indicators in smaller scale.
    Pencil style hours and minutes hands and thin straight seconds hand. Hours and Minutes hands have luminous green infill.
    Epson AL55a movement.
    Strap
    20mm black nylon strap, with polished buckle, aprox 180-225mm fitting.



    On a black/grey NATO...

    Here it is shown alongside the issue 1 U.S. Infantry watch, with which it shares a common lineage

  9. #29
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    Eaglemoss Military Watches Collection.

    Issue 24 - 1940s German Navy

    The German Navy during the Third Reich era, the Kriegsmarine, were supplied by German and Swiss watch manufacturers, including Alpina.
    The watches were made to a single style, a chrome or nickel plated brass case with a white or matt silver dial, that discoloured over time due to exposure to seawater.
    They were issued according to role, not rank.



    Case
    Polished 40mm case, 42.4mm with crown, 46.8mm lug to lug, 10mm deep, 35.7mm interior aperture.
    Case back engraved with description of the watch. 34.8mm flat glass.
    Dial
    35mm cream dial with black rail track minute marker scale at outer edge. Pale green markers at 5 minute intervals, black Arabic hour numerals
    Gloss black hands. White filled, pencil style, hours and minutes hands. Slim straight seconds hand.
    Lume on minute and hour hands only.
    Strap
    Dark tan leatherette strap, 22mm wide, narrows to 20mm polished buckle. Approx 180-225mm fitting.



    The rail track minute scale is very typical of the era and this watch immediately reminded me of the Issue 15 - 1950s British Air Force watch.

  10. #30
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    Eaglemoss Military Watches Collection.

    Issue 25 - 1960s Portuguese Colonial Army

    At the start of The Portuguese Colonial War in 1961 the Portuguese Army was badly equipped and used poorly suited and outdated WWII equipment to fight what was essentially a guerrilla war.
    As part of the upgraded equipment specification, watches were supplied by the Swiss company Heuer, high precision, and designed for use in Motorsport and Aviation environments they used a quality Valjoux chronograph movement.




    Case
    Polished 40mm case, 42mm with crown, 45mm lug to lug, 9.2mm deep.
    Case back engraved with description of the watch. 32.3mm flat glass. 33.6mm interior aperture.
    3mm wide bezel insert,black with silver arabic numerals indicating both hours and minutes.
    Dial
    32.5mm black dial with white 1/5th second scale at outer edge. Red marks at 5 second intervals. Pale green rectangular hour markers.
    Gloss red hands. White filled, baton style, hours and minutes hands. Slim straight seconds hand.
    Lume on minute and hour hands only.
    Strap
    20mm black canvas effect strap with red contrast stitching, 18mm polished buckle.


    Strangely the "Fake Dial" issue has managed to effect this watch too,
    This time the original Heuer Autavia watch would have been a full chronograph and had sub dials, many have said that the MWC watch is too sterile and lost the look of the original.

    Also some early images also show the watch with moulded fake 'pushers' to imitate the chronograph buttons. This image appears to have had the sub dials 'removed'.

    My example has had the bezel insert fitted off centre, which is very poor.

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