#1 An interesting Japanese deck watch box I just bought on eBay!! Any information anyone can supply would be appreciated a lot,thanks,Tom

#2

#3

These boxes most often hold stopwatches/timers and also chronographs. I'm sure they must have held deck watches as well, though I have not seen many of those. I have seen boxes like this with both Army Airforce and Navy markings.

The three characters on the outside of the lid indicate that the box was for a second timer (stopwatch). A small ordinary Seikosha stop watch with a nickle case and white dial would be appropriate for this box. Look for one with a small Japanese character stamped into the side of the case to indicate military service. Sometimes such stopwatches will have markings inside the back of the case, such as an anchor.

I don't know what the three characters inside the case at the top right represent. Most likely the type or class of timer is indicated.

The KH in a diamond shape stands for K. Hattori, the maker of the box.

The last marking appears to be for the East Tokio navy base, I think this was a place where timepieces and timers where inspected for military service.

Thanks for the posting.

Greg

would this one do for you, Tom?

or would you rather this one?

ROTFL

...and a wonderful friendship has developed out of this forum. Between us may be an Ocean, but I still feel very close to Tom. He´s a great guy and I´m proud to be virtually acquainted with him.
Good on you Jock, hang in there, the world is at our feet.

thank you very much,Greg,Lindell and Werner !!! I much appreciate the help ,Tom

You can see other pictures of my Seikosha Second Timer Type 1 Class 2 at https://picasaweb.google.com/s...umAndSubmarineMuseum

Werner, your second timer is one of the Longines movements imported to Japan by K. Hattori early in the war and although it is undoubtedly military issue it was not made by Seikosha. I'm not so sure your military collection is complete.

very nice Kenneth !!! now if I could only buy it for a reasonable price ,and put it in my Japanese WW2 deck watch box (scroll up) ,mind you if you had a spare British Deck watch box of WW2 ,or a Swiss ,German or French one I liked,I would trade you

quote:

Werner, your second timer is one of the Longines movements imported to Japan by K. Hattori early in the war and although it is undoubtedly military issue it was not made by Seikosha. I'm not so sure your military collection is complete.

I had posted my Chrono in a German forum, here is a translation.
Chrono Longines Cal 18.72 for the Imperial Japanese Navy
Here is a very, very rarely encountered Cal.18.72 Longines Pocket Watch, built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (Imperial Japanese Navy) in ww2 (1941)
The case is made of nickel and signed by Seikosha (SKS)
Nr.1357331 series, 7 digits long which is unusual in comparison to WW2 Seikosha chronograph.
The work is guilloche, has polished screws, pull out all-filed with beveled edges and has 17 jewels. The quality, as was customary at Longines at the time.
These watches were used before Seikosha succeeded in delivering watches to the japanese military.
I got in touch with Longines Museum and received the answer to my questions ...
Cal 18.72 movement was delivered in 1941 to Messrs. ... Hattori, who were at the time Longines agents in Japan. Kintaro Hattori of course, was the founder of Seikosha Watch Company, and Longines was represented by them since 1912 in the Asian region.
It was not unusual at the time to import only movements, it could be easily switched by Hattori, even dials and hands could be done locally, done to reduce import duties.
A very informative article on these rare watches can be viewed here ... Watch Japanese WW2

Here is the translation of the engraving from the kanji ...

Yakou byoudokei ichigata
kou No.13490

luminous dial chronograph type 1
nautical (Navy) No.13490

Thanks to the members of the Japanese forum ... Tokyo ... Arigato


...completion of my collection was in reference to the British WWW watches!

Hallo Tom & friends of Japanese watches,
I once tried to decipher these Japanese WWII markings and Tadashi Noda did help me.
Maybe I can read on your box 'distance ... meter', what would point on an artillery stop watch.
Attached the stopwatch that I found at a collector in this box, whether it was ever there I do not know.
. Gruesse/Regards/Salute Konrad Knirim
PS: Have a look at my books on Military Timepieces:
. http://www.knirim.de