1940s 14ct gold round vintage Longines ‘Weems’ Pilots watch
Date: 1940s
Case: 14ct gold, 28mm
Movement: Longines Calibre 10L
Dial: Champagne with lumed Arabic numerals
Lugs: 16mm
A 1940s, 14ct gold round vintage Longines ‘Weems’ watch. The case measures 28mm in diameter, with 16mm lugs. The case is signed Longines, cased and timed in USA, marked 14K and numbered. The manual wind, calibre 10L movement is signed Longines Watch Co., Swiss, with 17 jewels. The champagne dial has luminous Arabic numerals, centre sweep seconds, with fine ‘lumed’ blued steel hands. The dial is signed Longines above the centre.
Longines ‘WEEMS’ Pilot’s watch
By linking the outer bezel with the second hand and linking it to the air navigation system devised by Colonel Philip Van Horn Wemes of the United States Army. The time in seconds can be synchronized and locked after the bezel setting, as that time Innovative structure full of innovative creativity. The large ball-shaped winding-crown enables the watch to be wound by a pilot wearing gloves. It is practically impossible to build a commercial timepiece which will keep time to the exact second under the conditions met in a ship or in an airplane. The inevitable variation from true time necessitated an extra calculation in navigation to compensate for this chronometer error. Weems noted that in an airplane moving at speeds of 200 to 300 miles an hour or more, the time required for calculating chronometer error was a danger that should be eliminated. Since the high gear ratio made it impractical to set the second hand to the dial, Weems chose to set the bezel to the hands. He trained the famous Charles A. Lindbergh (1902-1974), who set the record for the first non-stop transoceanic flight. Lt.Cdr P.V. Weems who was a well-known aviator, navigator and instructor at the Naval Officer School at Annapolis, Maryland, in the U.S.A.
The watch, as a navigational instrument for airplane pilots, is used in conjunction with a sextant and the appropriate nautical tables, to permit the rapid computation of the Greenwich hour angle, i.e. the aircraft’s longitude.
