I picked this up from a Canadian "Yard Sale" and it smacks of British issue wartime use. The number 4 on the case is above a smnaller vertical pointing arrow. The whole watch is "original", and it is clear this is very early 1942 issue as it is a Very rare "9 Jewel Waltham Premiere adjusted" watch. a 9 Jewel premiere is in itself astounding, but so-be-it.

The movement is very robust, and I hesitate to mess with it until I can figure out how to remove the hands without damaging them.

The case back does have the British upside down chevron under the number 4, but it was nearly worn off.

Hi David,

Good images.

It would appear that you have a British issued Waltham of WWII vintage. Most likely Royal Navy. The number "4" stamp is interesting, and most likely a rack number to keep track of the watches on board a ship.

The dial appears to have seen some work, maybe some new luminous compound on the numbers and hands.

For more information, please see the attached thread:

Waltham Royal Navy Watches

Best regards,

Greg

Greg thank you for the backup thread on this type watch. Interestingly the S/N of my piece which is also distinctively marked Waltham Premier (which the piece on the other thread lacks)predates that shown on the thread by only a few 100,000 watches, so that one pictured was probably a 1943 or 44 issue. The "Radium" hour hand on my piece is still very bright, but the Dial Hour numbers are not glowing at all. I agree the dial (and hand replacement) may be refinished, but it was done probably for ships use.
These are excellent running time pieces, and actually would work well as a "comparator" grade watch too, which the 16a in fact became.

If you see any glow at all that would confirm that there has been some relatively recent work done on the dial. Old untouched radium based paint will not glow at all since the radium would have long ago burned out the zinc sulfide which is the material that actually glows in the old radium paint. The second clue is the roughness of the paint job of the luminous material on the hands and hour numerals.