1918 silver round vintage Longines ‘WW1 Officers/Trench’ watch
Date: 1918
Case: Silver, 35mm
Movement: Calibre 13.34
Dial: White enamel with Roman numerals
Lugs: 12mm
A fabulous vintage Longines ‘WW1 Officers/Trench’ watch, in superb condition!
A 1918, silver vintage Longines ‘WW1 Officers/Trench’ watch. The case measures 35 mm in diameter and has 12mm hinged lugs. The case is signed AB (Arthur Baume, director of Longines UK), Swiss, hallmarked London 1918 and numbered. The 13.34 calibre, manual wind movement is signed B&Co. (Baume & Co.), Swiss Made, with 15 jewels, with a hinged protective cover. The white enamel dial has black Roman numerals, with red twelve and a subsidiary seconds dial, and fine blued steel ‘breguet’ hands. The dial is signed Longines above the centre.
Early Officers or Trench wrist watches
The importance of watches during the Great War is emphasised by the extract reproduced here from the 1916 British War Office document:
“Instructions for the Training of Divisions for Offensive Action.” A delay of even 30 seconds in starting must be avoided, therefore watches must be synchronised. A later section of the same document gives instructions for this; “All officers must acquire the habit of checking their watches daily with the official time, which can be obtained from the Signal Service. Commanders must pay special attention to this point during training.”
Although wristwatches had been worn by civilian men before the Great War for special purposes, e.g. when bicycling or ballooning, at other times prior to the war a gentleman was expected to carry a pocket watch. During the war the army expanded dramatically and large numbers of new recruits were exposed to the sight of officers routinely wearing wristwatches. Officers were emboldened by their service at the front to continue wearing their wristwatches when they were home ‘on leave’, whereas before the war they might have hidden them away. The regular sight of officers ‘on leave’ from the fighting and wearing wristwatches soon created a fashion that spread through wider society in Britain.
