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There is a very close connection between two notions – “a wristwatch” and “war”: without war and arms production the appearance of the wristwatch could hardly be possible.

Granddad and Grandson

Breguet is probably one of the most “militant” brands in the history of watchmaking. Of course, contemporary Breguet watches are quite difficult to imagine in the battlefield. But it was the brand’s founder, Abraham Louis Breguet, who was the first to design a timepiece which became an irreplaceable helpmate for any officer during Napoleon’s military campaigns. It was the so called “carriage watch” which could be compactly folded up during the trip and then easily placed at any surface owing to the collapsible folds. Such a compact collapsible timepiece was much more reliable than a pocket watch and Breguet’s invention very quickly became one of the favourites of officers who travelled a lot by carriages. In peacetime the carriage watch was an indispensable accessory for every traveller.

In about a century, when the World War I broke out, Breguet watches returned to the ranks again, this time owing to the master’s great grandson Louis Charles Breguet who was one of the aviation pioneers. Planes constructed by Breguet were quite well-known in the firs half of the 20th century. And the Breguet XIV plane became one of the France’s best military double planes of that time. From 1922 to the 1970s all Breguet planes were equipped with special Breguet air-chronometers. That’s why in 1950 Breguet was chosen by the French Ministry of Defence to produce wrist chronographs for armed forces equipped with the Туре 20 movement developed by Dodaine. The wrist chronograph Breguet Type 20 became the official watch of the French Air Forces, Navy and CEV (Centre D’Essai en vol or Training Air Centre).

Well, things are clear with French military: Air Forces and Navy were using Breguet, naval special mission units were wearing Fifty Fathoms which was developed in cooperation between Blancpain and Lip in 1953. And was there a timepiece created specially for the legendary Legion Etranger? Unfortunately, there wasn’t. There is still no official watch for the Legion Estranger. Everything produced with this logo is no more than a private label targeted at the military style watches’ fans.

Colt, Strap and Grill

The real transformation of watches from the status accessory of an officer and a gentleman into the functional piece of military equipment started in the second half of the 19th century. Interesting enough: first arms technology came into watchmaking and only then watches appeared in the battlefield. The first step in this process became possible owing to the Americans. They were first to start using production line and interchangeable parts in the watchmaking. But the idea came from the arms workshops, namely from the factory which was producing Colt revolvers. In 1867 at the fair in Philadelphia the first watch made on the basis of “Colt’s technology” was presented. This event made Swiss watchmakers, who were concerned about the competition, reconstruct their manufactories and turn to the serial production.

In 1879 the German emperor William I visited a trade fair in Berlin where he saw an experimental model by Girard-Perregaux with a strap which fixed the watch at the wrist. The emperor was the first to equip his army officers with these wristwatches. He ordered 1000 pieces for the German Imperial Navy, and in 1880 already 2000 of naval officers were equipped with wristwatches. Unfortunately history didn’t preserve any original of these watches. The drafts of these watches are kept in the Girard-Perregaux archives. It is known that they were produced in cases made of gold to avoid corrosion and the dia was protected with thick bars resembling. To check the time one had to unlock the bars and lift it.

But in spite of the Imperial order until the World War I the standard timepiece for an officer was a pocket watch. Though in 1903 a German entrepreneur Hans Wilsdorf was already selling Rolexwatches accompanied with straps, and the Brazilian pilot Santos-Dumont was flying with a wristwatch created for him by Louis Cartier, the mass production of wristwatches was mastered by masses themselves.

It was very inconvenient for the officers of the 20th century to keep their timepieces in pockets. So they started to weld the second ring to the case and to run a strap through it to fasten the watch to the wrist. Such a type of watches was called “officer watches”. To protect the crystal the same officers became to order from watchmakers special bars to cover the dial.

The bars that protected the case could be divided into several types: the most widely used Girard-Perregaux-type one, then the “grill” (such models were made by Cimier), “wheel” (Waltham) and “radiator”in which the bars consisted of two halves with cuts resembling an automobile radiator.

WWW and the “Broad Arow”

The war equipment should be very reliable and durable. And watches make no exception. That’s why military men formulated their own requirements for a military wristwatch.

In the mid 1940s British ministry of defence worked out the system of requirements for the watches made for Air Forces and Navy which acquired the name of WWW (Wrist Watch Waterproof). The requirement were quite simple: the watch must be waterproof up to 30 meters, the case must be crafted of stainless steel and equipped with a screw-up cover with padding, at the dial there must be Arabic figures and at 6 o’clock there must be subsidiary seconds. The brands that were given the WWW seal are Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lemania, Longines, IWC. Omega, Record, Timor and Vertex became the official suppliers of the British ministry of defence until 1970s. All watches produced for the British army or civil services were marked with the sign of Broad Arrow at the dial.

WWW set the standard for the dials too. Since 1940s military watches are equipped with dials with Arabic figures only, minute markers and subsidiary seconds. The military also introduced black dials with luminescent covering.

Watch for a Secret Agent

Everyone is familiar with James Bond’s super-watches which can kill with laser and poison and also equipped with a TV-set. But the most famous real British secret agent – Lawrence of Arabia – was wearing a completely different timepiece.

One of the first brands who signed the contract with the British government was Geneva-based West End & Со. West End watches were especially popular in India and the Middle East. The most well-known timepiece by West End was Sovar Prima watch (from Hindi “Sovar” is translated as “military), which featured the Broad Arrow. According to the biographers of Thomas Edward Lawrence, nicknamed Lawrence of Arabia, a medievalist and a British secret agent in the Middle East, was wearing this watch until his death in 1935.

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