Watches, Army Air Corps, Avigation Air Navigation, A-6

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Watches, Army Air Corps, Avigation Air Navigation, A-6 c.1934

 

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Avigation was the short-lived AAC term for aerial navigation. In 1933 the Advanced Avigation Training Unit was organized under the famous civilian navigator, Harold Gatty. Before that time the AAC had had only basic navigation training and very limited navigational aid equipment.

 

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Summary of Army aviation timepieces
The A-6 was also issued in a single case, presumably for use within a single time zone. It was a master watch, to be carried in the lead plane of a flight, by which pilots would set (hack) their wristwatches.

A-6 watches at the Smithsonian

This pair of Weems-type second-setting “avigation” watches in a shock-mounted case dates from about 1934. One maintained Greenwich Civil Time (later Greenwich Mean Time). The other kept Local Civil Time.