Eric Shipton

[tribe125]

it was literally the first piece of equipment that Hillary checked on the morning of the final ascent?

Ah, so it’s an early social networking device.

[Matt]

I love these sorts of threads. Amazing analytic work and wonderfully written narrative. Thank you for sharing.


Sent from my cracked, broken hand wound phone. IG @morning_tundra

Thanks very much! Feel free to like or add reputation if you think it's worth it, but - best of all - get involved and start digging around for obscure nuggets yourself - I enjoy reading this sort of stuff as much as you do!

[Matt]

Ah, so it’s an early social networking device.

*Grin*

Actually that's kind of true. Here's the original invoice from Smiths:



So yes, it's the official expedition alarm clocks. However, there was a problem: Smiths don't make a KAZ.2 alarm clock. However, digging idly through their product catalogue, I discovered that they did make a KA22 alarm clock. It is indeed seven jewelled, a deluxe model with full lume. Then it was just a matter of finding one. As it turns out the deluxe version isn't so common and just for once, ebay didn't deliver and I found a NOS one at a steam rally.



In the original box (even if like many on Everest, the posh leather case had perished horribly).



Mine comes with a reasonably undiscipherable stock code with all that that implies. I'm assuming that it's thus the military model of the best alarm clock Smiths made at the time. It looks like this:



And has that sort of deep chroming that is a pleasure to hold. The cooking version comes in brass.



So, that's another thing that ticked high on Everest.

So now it's everyone else's turn:



Name that watch. Bonus points for the correct movement!

*Edit* Oh well. I thought it was interesting.

[tribe125]

Your clock being made -

[OhDark30]

Cheers Matt!
Another reminder of the diversity of Smiths ticking products (I remember school wall clocks and lab timers)

When KA22 first mentioned, I was going to guess it was an altimeter
My hot water tank has a Smiths timer (one of those ones with push in teeth for on and off) and I noticed a Smiths Detection xray machine going through the airport yesterday

Shame they no longer do watches :-(

[Matt]

Cheers Matt!
Another reminder of the diversity of Smiths ticking products (I remember school wall clocks and lab timers)

When KA22 first mentioned, I was going to guess it was an altimeter
My hot water tank has a Smiths timer (one of those ones with push in teeth for on and off) and I noticed a Smiths Detection xray machine going through the airport yesterday

Shame they no longer do watches :-(

I've a few Smiths instruments in my car:

[Matt]

Cheers Matt!
Another reminder of the diversity of Smiths ticking products (I remember school wall clocks and lab timers)

When KA22 first mentioned, I was going to guess it was an altimeter
My hot water tank has a Smiths timer (one of those ones with push in teeth for on and off) and I noticed a Smiths Detection xray machine going through the airport yesterday

Shame they no longer do watches :-(

Blame Delorean! Smiths asked for cash to prop smiths up and they gave it to Delorean to sniff up his nose while making three cars for back to the future - with a little forethought the whole film frnachise could have been built around a steampunnk Smiths Imperial! (Not that that would have helped.)

[Matt]

I've had a day out:



Mostly spent in the basement of the Royal Geographical Society



Armed with a loupe, reading glasses and some fairly clear ideas of what I was looking for. Sadly, there's an absolute rule about not taking photographs in the collection and any images they make of the documents and photographs are purely for research purposes and would cost seventy quid a pop if I wanted to post them. However, now I know exactly what I'm looking for on the internet so we'll see.

Anyway, I'm knackered, I've spent the day on trains in a basement and at a show that was, while rather brilliant, bloody gruelling:

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/20...s-refugee-camp

So I'm for cocoa and bed. Much more eventually.

...Like the absolute confirmation of an Omega (or possibly Lemania) chronograph on Everest. Which I rather think might be an internet first. *Smug*