Well I just got this this today the seller had this for sell for years and I been looking at it for years he had a high price on it so I ask you been trying to sell this for a long time what the lowest you will go down well he finely said a OK price and I got it.It's the early one from WWI came out of a DE HAVILAND D.H.4 Biplane use by the US Army signal corps has a one of a kind stand it's the best looking aircraft clock in my colection and all metal case my guess it once belong to a pilot who flew them the stand is so nice looks like a retirement gift



A De Haviland DH4 aircraft from WW1

Here is some info on the De Haviland Biplane that the clock came out of.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airco_DH.4

Very, very nice Mike, congratulations. What a beautiful watch and what a beautiful plane, I´d love to have flown one of them...
Regards.

Here is some info I found about A.S. S.C. on the dial stands for aviation section signal corps that many years later became the US Air Force the US Air Force went through 7 name changes the above the second name change from 1914-1918 the US Air Force was known as the Aviation Section Signal Corps hard to believe it was part of the signal corps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...n,_U.S._Signal_Corps
Also read that Lindbergh used a Waltham XA aircraft clock in the spirit of St Louis when he flew the Atlantic so it had to be a great clock of it's day.

You will see the prop and wing that was the branch insignia of the Air Service from 1918-1926 the third name change of the Air Force I am getting a history lession with this clock.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U...tes_Army_Air_Service

Very nice clock and stand! There are several versions of this clock including the one with US Navy on it, the one with just AS (Air Service) the one with brass case (like yours), the one with white metal case, and the civilian version.

Unless there is some very strong provenance it is not possible to say what kind of aircraft they came from since they are generic, one-size-fits-all, aircraft clocks from the US aircraft of the day. The movements inside can be dated by their serial number so you can tell when yours was made. You can see the movement and the serial number by simply unscrewing the whole back plate (there are two little studs sticking up that you can grab onto to unscrew the back plate).

The plaque on yours seems to be a later addition. For example, the winged propeller insignia was first used in 1920 and was the standard insignia until the 1947 when the Army Air Force was turned into the U.S. Air Force as a co-equal branch of the military. These were worn on the collar of the uniform jacket (one on each side) Over the years the styling of the winged propeller changed a bit and you can get a rough idea of the vintage by their styling. The one on this plaque seems to be a later one of about WW II in age.

I am not sure I recognize the medallion of the DH-4 but it reminds me of sets of medallions of things like historic aircraft. I think it is a great addition to the plaque.

You might also be interested in finding yourself a copy the old Smithsonian Air and Space Museum print of the DH-4 in their collection to display with this clock. They made them back in the late 1970s and the really fascinating aspect of these is the Smithsonian took some of the original fabric from the aircraft and cut it up into 2 inch squares and glued them to those posters. I thought it was not a good idea, but they did what they did and they are not very expensive to buy when you see them. The Smithsonian only did that for a few aircraft in their collection before they realized it was not a good thing for a museum to do and they stopped the practice. Anyway, I was thinking that displaying your clock on its mounting next to one of those posters with the piece of original fabric on it might make a really nice display.

Hi Jim
I belong to a few forums ones a military forum they collect more of the uniforms and gear than watches I posted it over there they say about the same as you about the stand but they did say the prop and wing was used in WW1 but mine on the plaque is WW2 era here is the thread.
http://www.usmilitariaforum.co...235&hl=Prop,and,wing
You can do a search you will also see it under the stripes of the inlisted on the WW1 uniforms they mite not be smart on watches like we are but they know thre stuff on the uniform and what was issued I have learned a little over there.And Jim were would be a good place to look for one of those prints sound like a good idea and thanks for telling me about the print.
Here is a link to a WW1 Pilot uniform you will see the Prop and wing on the Collar they used cloth wings for the Pilot wings above the pocket.
http://www.usmilitariaforum.co...c=33966&hl=WW1+wings
Another link with WW1 photo's of pilots in uniforms.
http://www.usmilitariaforum.co...c=26053&hl=WW1+wings

A nice example of the old XA Aircraft Clock. The serial number of the movement can be used to check the date the movement was made.

I think the case may have been refinished at some point.

From the image it appears to have a brass case which is uncommon. Most of these timepieces had white metal cases.

There have been several posts on this forum about these clocks, including this one:

https://ihc185.infopop.cc/eve/f...=880104435#880104435

They come up from time to time on Ebay and other auctions. I think there were eight different aircraft done in this series before the Smithsoniam woke up and stopped it. One was their 1918 DH-4 bomber, the others were a Wright EX "the Vin Fizz", a German WW I Albatros D.Va, Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega "the Winnie Mae", Curtiss Flying Boat "NC-4", a Bleriot XI, the 1924 Douglass World Cruiser, and a 1923 Fokker T-2.

Prices seem to be all over the place on these things. I've seen them go for as low as $50 to as high as several hundred dollars. If you think about it though, there were only several hundred of each made since there was not very much fabric available (the Smithsonian only used scraps of the original fabric they removed when they restored these historic aircraft and they kept the big pieces) to make them, and one would expect the prices to be quite high as a result of their rarity combined with the most absolute provenance you can get for a piece of old original aircraft fabric.

Here is an example of what one of these ones with the DH-4 looks like so you will know it when you see it:

Example of a Smithsonian DH-4 print with original fabric swatch