Here are some of my WW2 watch collection there are waltham,elgins,bulova in the mix.

A great collection.

Army Ord watches, A11's, and an A17 in the middle?

I like to see the original straps on these watches.

Thanks for posting the images.

Best regards,
Greg

Your right they look better with original straps.About halve these when I bought them had the wrong strap and it's harder to find ww2 era straps to make them all original.And your right on the type of watches A-11,A17,ORD watches.

Mike,

Nice collection. Can you give more information about each of them for those of us who are trying to learn about Military wrist watches?

Also, how do you know if the strap is original?

John III

I will start with the straps one of them is not original it would be the one with metal hole's the rest are.Some came with the watches I got those at the shows and at a store that sell's watches and parts that I go to.The other I got them in there original the packaging and replaced the none military straps.There is a book called Military timepieces by Whitney it's the best book I found on american WW2 era watches I will tell more about the watches in a later post

There are companies that make and sell reproduction WW II style straps. You can buy them on Ebay or some watch parts supply places. On occasion you can find a few original unused WW II era or 1950s era straps that look like WW II era straps, but for the most part the original straps are no longer around since if they were used the old sweat in them has likely eaten them away.

You see these in either the one-piece or two piece styles - though I think the one-piece style strap was the one used more often. The one-piece style had the advantage that if one of the strap pins or lugs broke, the watch itself would still stay on the strap and the strap would still stay on your wrist. In Mike's collection - the top and third from the top watches are on these one-piece straps. The strap is a single length of canvas with two loops sewn onto it where the watch is attached. The others are two piece straps which is the kind you normally see on civilian watches where there are two shorter lengths of canvas - one attached to each side of the watch. If your watch catches on something it does not take much force to bend or break the little pin holding the watch to the strap and your watch falls off of your wrist which is not good in a combat situation.