Thanks Jim, that's very helpful. I will, of course, keep it with other items passed down and hopefully pass it on to my children in the (hopefully) distant future!

Hello all,

Pardon for resurrecting an old thread. Was undecided if I should do so or make a new one...
Anyway, I just came to own this Leonidas GSTP. Can anyone shed some light on the movement caliber and manufacturer?
Thank you in advance,
david.

For some reason only one of the images loaded...

Hi David. I am not able to say who the maker was as there were so many makers of these movements for the British military and I am not an expert on the minor design differences of them all. Hopefully someone here will be able to say for sure. Contracts were given to pretty much any maker who could provide the movements. Normally the better makers would clearly mark their movements while the lesser makers sometimes did not. And there were suppliers who received contracts from the Ministry of Defense who did not actually make the movements but instead contracted with lesser makers to supply them wholesale with movements that the supplier then cased and delivered to the military. In such arrangements the maker may not have put their markings on the movements. I look forward to hearing from anyone here who might know for sure.

Thanks, Doc.
Thank you , too, Jim.
Had to locate my tools. Hands were not lined up for exact on the hour time, so it was a perfect opportunity to take off the hands to re-position them and check behind the dial.
It is Unitas. The UT logo is there big as day, though some of the guys over here think it means University of Texas. Is this a 429? Apart from the movement number there are no other marks on the movement.

Nice example. You have taken some good pictures.

Another interesting sideline to GSTP collecting is finding brands sold to both the British and German military in WWII. The Germans demanded a few more refinements such as shock resistent balance jewels..... but I suppose that's for another post.

First post here. I was led to the forums whilst investigating my Helvetia GS/TP PW. This appears to have an alloy case - it certainly doesn't budge a compass needle. I suspect that this may have been issued to radio operators. Anyone have any information about this?
Thanks
Roy

I can't see any way of posting >1 photo, so I'll have to post several times.

and another

And I guess whilst I'm about it I may as well add my Unitas version. Looks as though the hands and some dial elements have been badly re-lumed however I've seen lots that look similar - so maybe it's just a case of rushed wartime production.
Roy

movement

Case back

Thanks Debbie. It really doesn't take much longer so no problem at all.
Roy

A couple of nice examples. As far as distribution some wireless sets came with a watch attached to the unit in a plastic holder.

Hi Greg, what do you think about the condition of the lume on the black dial version? Two schools of thought on that.
Roy

GS/TP watches were issued for all kinds of general purpose uses to the Army. While they were used by signals units they were also used by most other kinds of units as well. Time pieces that were specific to signals units tend to be the clocks with the colored markings on their dials to indicate things like radio silence times and such.

The lume on your second watch would most likely be a mix of radium, zinc sulfide, and a glue type material to hold these two powders together. The brownish color would be the zinc sulfide being burned out by the radiation from the radium. Back in its day it would have glowed brightly all by itself with no need to "charge" it by shining a strong light on it. My suggestion is to leave it as it is since it is original to the watch. Also, removing it would be something that would need to be done carefully to avoid any dust being generated and breathed in. It would be bad if it was breathed in since the radium is still radioactive.