An Omega on Everest in 1953!

[Matt]

A couple of months ago, I cumulatively spent a few days watching all of the film I could find that was shot on or around Everest in 1953, cutting out all of the watches and having a go at enhancing,magnifying and generally buggering about with them. As I expected, the overwhelming majority of the pictures were of Smiths A409 and Rolex 6098 watches, the two models of watches that were gifted to the expedition and shared out liberally between the team. Several team members wore both and one even wore a Smiths on his belt and a Rolex on his wrist. But this is another thread.

However, there were two exceptions. One was Tenzing Norgay and the other was Doctor Griffith Pugh. For obvious reasons, Norgay is a Big Deal and I'm not posting anything until I can make an absolutely waterproof case, not least because the recieved wisdom of the internet and the testimony of his second son is clearly absolutely wrong.

In the case of Pugh, I think I have enough evidence to make a convincing pictorial and inferential case for the claim that Griffith Pugh definitely wore an SSIH group chronograph: Omega, Lemania or Tissot with a Lemania CH27 movement, better known to all as the Omega 321 movement. In fact, I'll go further and claim that he almost certainly wore a mid forties Omega chronograph. That's the same 321 movement that was worn on the moon. This is, to say the least, unexpected and it's certainly not something I have seen claimed anywhere else. He also wore a Smiths A409 when climbing.

So here's my lovingly hand annotated team picture:


Pugh is directly behind Hillary

While largely unknown, Griffith Pugh was not a peripheral figure to the Everest expedition. While his contribution was downplayed at the time, many of the climbers felt that the diet, acclimatisation, hydration and oxygen regimes that he developed in the early fifties and perfected on the Cho Oyu expedition were the underpinning of the '53 expedition's success when so many others had failed. He was also a strong climber in his own right. Here's a nice blog post all about him:

http://bobmckerrow.blogspot.com/2013...f-everest.html

My first picture is cut from the offical film of the expedition and, it transpires, was filmed at Farnborough in 1951.



This may be a tiny blurred image, but one feature, or more precisely three features, stood out to me: the three sunken subdials clustered close together. These will be instantly familiar to anyone who owns a Speedmaster.

So at that point, I had an intuitively obvious dial on the wrist of someone who would eventually climb Everest. This is one of those moments at which the very possibility is exciting, but the reality is that it's not enough to convince anyone who is appropriately sceptical. However, what it gave me was an idea of what I was looking for. The other key feature isn't clear in this still, but is quite clear elsewhere in the film - the watch is on a thin bracelet, almost like a lady's dress bracelet made up of a series of rings. This is immensely useful as it is a really obvious feature that can link images together.

So, as I've mentioned elsewhere, on Thursday I spent the day at the Royal Geographical Society researching the Everest documentation and photographs. The pass number was a good omen! My main aim was Norgay and evidence of any watches given to the '51 and '52 expedition. However, my two secondary aims were finally finishing off identifying precisely who wore what on Everest and, as part of that, discovering if Pugh's chronograph made it to Everest.



The RGS have around six thousand photographs from Everest and only a few hundred have been digitised and released. Unfortunately, the RGS do not allow photography and, while they will happily digitise images for personal and research use, they do not permit reproduction on the internet without the payment of a hefty royalty.

As a result of my visit, I am now quite certain that Griffith Pugh wore an Omega with a 321 movement on Everest. What I can't do is easily prove it here. For anyone who wishes to visit the RGS and ask very nicely, they are looking for, for example, images A27002 and A27373, both of which, when examined through a loupe, are pretty damn convincing to anyone with familiarity with the watch in question. They also show the watch on the odd circular bracelet and at height.

So, I'm convinced, I'm convinced on the basis of obsessive familiarity with the Speedmaster family, further supported by the fact that Pugh clearly owned the watch in early 1951 which rather limits the number of chronographs that even remotely fit the features that can clearly be seen.

However, that's not quite the same as convincing everyone else. Fortunately, as is so often the case, once you know exactly what you are looking for, you can refine your search and the internet will probably provide! I don't think the case I can now make here is quite as clear as the images at the RGS, but it's not far off.

So here we go...


Let's just zoom in and enhance...


Well, zoom in anyway.

Here we see a far clearer image of the watch, which nicely showcases the lugs and once again gives a fuzzy but evocative sense of the subdial positions. Sadly, what isn't clear is the pushers. Virtually all of the watches of the period had pushers that were a variation on this:



This is a very similar SSIH product from precisely the same period. As you can see, the pusher is effectively free floating and if you looked inside, you'd see that the pusher is just held in place by a leaf of spring steel. They could not be effectively waterproofed. The crown is just a flat disk and no attempt at waterproofing has been made.

SSIH were among the first to offer a chronograph with round pushers which could be effectively waterproofed and were later used in the Speedy Pro. A chronograph without waterproof pushers would be utterly unsuitable for Everest. Whatever this watch is, it would have to have waterproof pushers of the sort employed in the Speedmaster Pro and a large waterproof crown...

Fortunately, one of the small number of RGS pictures that have been digitised is this one and:


Firstly, this is clearly Pugh and the mystery watch equally clearly has waterproof pushers and a waterproof crown, not to mention that odd bracelet. The photograph was taken at Everest Camp Three in 1953. While this time the subdials are unclear, the watch itself couldn't be clearer. The pusher layout, lug shape and distance, not to mention the waterproof case are all quintessentially an SSIH style and in 1951, that was just three brands.

However only one brand, and indeed only one watch fits precisely all the criteria across all the photographs: the Omega CK2287. This was launched in 1943 and was one of the world's first waterproof chronographs with a 30m water resistance (which is why it has the round pushers) It has the CH27 movement, which was renamed the 321 and has precisely the correct lug shapes. As a picture is worth a thousand words, here's the picture from the Omega Vintage Database:



This has identical dimensions,bezel, lugs and space between the lugs. An identical 'modern' style large thick waterproof crown, identical waterproof round pushers, the same familiar subdial layout and is from precisely the correct period. It's almost identical to the infinitely more common CK2451, but I think that the CK2451's lugs join the case a tiny bit too smoothly. Again, I'm happy to be corrected.

There is always the possibility that I'm looking at three or more different watches, but, like the Bonklip on Norgay's watch, the odd round bracelet links all the photographs. In the same way, there might be another watch out there that meets all these criteria, but I can't find it. I'd be delighted if anyone else can!

Until then, I feel pretty safe in claiming that there was an Omega CK2287 on Everest in 1953. The CK2287 was the first Omega watch that brought together many of the features of the later ST105.012 that landed on the Moon and has a strong case for being called a proto moon watch.

A proto moon watch on Everest in 1953! I can't deny it, it makes me smile to think of it.

You heard it here first.

[shameless]

fascinating stuff Matt !

[tribe125]

Comprehensive research, Matt. You have investigative stamina!

Reading about Pugh, it’s clear that ‘Doctor’ hardly does him justice. He was a one-man scientific department and a pioneer in his field. By the look of it, he couldn’t have had a better instrument strapped to his wrist, and it’s not hard to imagine the uses to which it was put. I’d hazard a guess and say that his Omega may have been more central to the Everest mission than the Omega to the moon mission.

At the risk of giving you another task, it would be no surprise if he also had a stopwatch.

[TigerDore]

Matt, this is very impressive work and exciting news! Thank you for sharing this with us!

[chuckmiller]

Good stuff, Matt! Really gets the brain going on a Saturday morning.

[Matt]

Comprehensive research, Matt. You have investigative stamina!

Reading about Pugh, it’s clear that ‘Doctor’ hardly does him justice. He was a one-man scientific department and a pioneer in his field. By the look of it, he couldn’t have had a better instrument strapped to his wrist, and it’s not hard to imagine the uses to which it was put. I’d hazard a guess and say that his Omega may have been more central to the Everest mission than the Omega to the moon mission.

At the risk of giving you another task, it would be no surprise if he also had a stopwatch.

Actually I think he'd have most benefitted from one of the alarm clocks. Eldest daughter is a medical chemist and has a small collection of kitchen timers for timing the progress of chemical reactions so she doesn't forget to do something at the right moment.
Given the sort of work Pugh was doing, I suspect he'd have a similar need.

[skywatch]

Fascinating stuff! Thank you.

[tribe125]

Computer says no:

“You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Matt again.”

[Matt]

Thanks for all the positive comments. What I'm hoping for is someone who owns the watch in question. I think that might well make their day! Certainly as a speedy owner, I'm chuffed enough - it's one more facinating dimension to an already astonishing history.

[TigerDore]

Thanks for all the positive comments. What I'm hoping for is someone who owns the watch in question. I think that might well make their day! Certainly as a speedy owner, I'm chuffed enough - it's one more facinating dimension to an already astonishing history.

If this can be verified, I think it is huge.