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Watches to wear with your flight jackets...

kirova

Well-Known Member
Not an A-11 but pretty nice little watches on their own. So called "Ord. dept." watches from ww2. I restorated both a few years ago with original parts. I don't changed the yellowed glas on the Elgin as I wanted it keep original and it has the rare tropical watch strap that was issued in the pacific theater.

so the leather strap was for tropical use? you would think the canvas strap would be more suitable, with the sweat and humidity and all that.
 
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Enigma1938

Well-Known Member
so the leather strap was for tropical use? you would think the canvas strap would be more suitable, with the sweat and humidity and all that.

It's not leather, it's nylon or a similar kind of plastic. And exact for your mentioned reasons (humidity, sweat...) they prefered the nylon strap over cloth in tropical climate cause the thin cloth straps were rotting away quick.
 

kirova

Well-Known Member
It's not leather, it's nylon or a similar kind of plastic. And exact for your mentioned reasons (humidity, sweat...) they prefered the nylon strap over cloth in tropical climate cause the thin cloth straps were rotting away quick.


thanks for that! learned something new today :)

and I have noticed that the other strap seems to have a plastic buckle as well, I guess it must've been due to war time material restrictions?
 

kirova

Well-Known Member
another find in the drawer, an A-11 I purchased from a member from the Yahoo Groups days I think?

It came with a generic one piece nylon strap, I replaced it with a (supposedly) NOS straps I got from ebay.

The watch stopped running a few years ago, just gotta find time to visit a watch maker.

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MaydayWei

Well-Known Member
I picked up a couple of theses a while back. I don’t know much about them other than it’s a great watch and it’s British Military Broad Arrow marked. If anyone knows a bit more, please share it … Thanks :) View attachment 60715View attachment 60716

Hey Burt,
I’m no expert but I think Bark and Jack on YouTube made a video on CWC MOD field watches. I’ve always wanted a broad arrow marked one so if you ever feel inclined to let one go, give me a holler ;)
Wear the piss out of it! :)
 

MikeyB-17

Well-Known Member
Well Folks the great day finally dawned. Regular readers will recall me bemoaning, like I do, the loss of my beloved Speedmaster, and me expressing my hope that one day, I would have another. Well this morning I woke up to find a pretty impressive sum of money in my account - having retired from the Ambulance Service after 29 years, my pension had come through-a fair bit more than I was expecting! So what did I do? I headed straight off to Truro, to my nearest high end watch dealer, to get the watch I had promised myself when the time came. I confess I had unclean thoughts-I seriously considered something I had never thought possible - buying a Rolex. Nothing flash, just a bog standard Sub-well that went out the window as soon as I got in there. You can't get them for love nor money. The girl in the shop doubted I would get one this year. There appears to be a world shortage - whether deliberately engineered by Rolex I don't know. Visiting a second hand dealer revealed that you can't get them used either - if they did get one in, 'it would sell in about two seconds'. So I went to another second hand dealer-no Rolexes, but what they did have was a very nice Speedmaster Moonwatch, serviced, warranty, and I've used him several times before so I trust the dealer. And about a third of what I'd been prepared to pay for the Rolex. It had to be done. He even found me a spare bracelet link and fitted it for me.
So a Speedmaster is back on my wrist. It sure does feel good. It probably won't be long before I put it back on a strap, which I do tend to prefer. It will be nice to get back to the ritual of the daily wind.
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warguy

Well-Known Member
You can never go wrong with a speedy. What’s going on with the Rolex sportswatches right now is crazy. I have watched the Daytona go from a msrp of $13,500, to an even double at $26,000 on the secondary market (you can’t really get one from a AD unless you know the right people) to $36,000 on the secondary market today. Give me a $6500 Moonwatch (the new caliber from an AD full retail) any day! Looks good on you.
 
I'd steer clear of the new calibre Speedmaster. Just seems to me that Omega are trying to position it as a luxury item rather than what makes all previous Speemasters so special: that they are ultimately a tool watch. Very reminiscent of when Rolex fundamentally changed the Submariner away from being a watch to dive with to the luxury monstrosity we see today with the laughably out of proportion case, stupid engraved rehaut etc.
 

MikeyB-17

Well-Known Member
I did try on a new Speedmaster when I was in the AD. Very nice, quite liked the new ‘old style’ bracelet, but otherwise nothing much different to my old one, or the one I’ve just bought-except several thousand pounds more expensive.
 

warguy

Well-Known Member
The new ones look the same, but the caliber of movement inside is much better. COSC and Meta certified, it is a great movement, but you will pay for it. I don’t own a Pseedy, but it is at the top of my list for my next watch someday. I have their 300 diver (I also have a Submariner) and I would stack their dive watch against a Rolex any day...it checks all the boxes in comparison with the exception of resale value. If you are not investing in watches for resale and want one for wear, go with an Omega.
 
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