Eaglemoss Military Watches Collection.
MWC 86 - 1940s Soviet Airman
by
, Jul 18, 2017 at 09:00 PM (6975 Views)
As the Russian Army advanced through Germany at the close of World War II they captured Glashutte, one of the most important watch manufacturing areas in Germany. The Soviets quickly recognised an opportunity and seized all the watchmaking machinery and equipment, technical diagrams and spare parts, that they could, loaded them onto trucks, and carried them off as war reparations to Moscow
From 1947 the First Moscow Watch Factory, the major Soviet watchmaker of the time, started to supply Soviet Pilots using re-branded and re-cased German watches, and by 1949 the captured machines were producing components to enable the factory to produce components for a watch that was the same design as a Tutima Type 69 Chronograph
Case
Polished 40mm case, 43.3mm with crown, 9.8mm deep, 46.4mm Lug to Lug, 20mm lug width
Interior diameter 35mm, 8mm deep, 6mm crown, 35.5mm flat glass
Grooved band around the edge of the dial, red mark at 12
Dial
Black Dial with white printed 5th-second scale at the outside edge numbered at 5-second intervals.
Hours indicated by Green Arabic numerals
Polished cathedral style hour and minute hands and a slim seconds hand with poise counter
Strap
Brown PU Leather strap 20mm wide at the lugs, narrows to an 18mm polished buckle, approx. fitting 180/225mm
Unusual ISA 638 movement
This is the second watch of the series that has been based on the Tutima Fliegerchronograph, the other was issue 31 French Pilot IRAM watch.
I'm still a little confused why they didn't just present the original rather than the 'stolen' ones, though I guess the history is worth noting