I know next to nothing about wrist watches & even less about Military ones but I have always wanted to own some.

Could someone tell me what type of case this Elgin would have been in & also the time period Elgin made these watches in.

Thanks
Tom

Hello Tom. Most of these were used in camera timers on military aircraft what I understand, not cased as wrist watch pieces. I have cased a few of these into unmarked military three-piece Star wrist watch cases. They look very nice with the coin edge bezel. It is a shame they were never issued as a military wrist watch but had other applications. If you are ever in Albuquerque stop by and I will show you a white as well as a black dial version.

Hi Ernest

Thanks for the info., I might take you up on the offer next time I am down your way.

Tom

There is quite a bit of information on these in Whitney's book "Military Timepieces" on pages 243 to 247 where he calls them instrument watches. They were made by both Elgin and Bulova and are from the 1950s to 1960s era. They were mainly used in aerial photograph cameras and in radar systems where photos were periodically taken of the radar screen. The resulting photos would have the watch face show up on the edge of the photos to provide the time the photo was taken. They are not very rare as many people are not sure what to do with them since they are not wristwatches and they are a bit small for a desk or mantle clock which is what many people use aircraft panel clocks for.

If you are interested in military timepieces in general or just military watches in particular this is a nice website with helpful and knowledgable folks. I would also recommend you start building a small library of reference books for yourself and make the Whitney book your first purchase if you have any interest in American military timepieces.

Jim

Thank you for the information. The dial on these looked like the Hamilton 4992B, I thought it was neat looking, I wish they had made these as a wrist watch.

Tom

As Ernest mentioned, you could likely put the movement put into an old wristwatch case, or have a good watchmaker do it for you, to wear as a wristwatch - if you can find a case of the right size.

I tend to be more of the kind of collector who prefers to have military timepieces original though and I like to think of the stories they might tell if only they could talk, so I would not do such a thing myself, but since these do not seem to be overly rare I'm sure it wouldn't be a complete sacriledge.

Interesting watch, i'd prefer fit it into its original case.
I wish i found one to put close to its brother..