1916 cushion silver vintage IWC (International Watch Co.) ‘Officers’ watch
Date: 1916
Case: Silver, 32.5 x 32.5mm
Movement: Calibre 64
Dial: Black enamel with white Arabic numerals
Lugs: 20mm
A rare, cushion case, early IWC ‘Officers’ watch from WW1, in fantastic condition!
A 1916, rare, early silver cushion vintage I.W.C. (International Watch Company) watch. The case measures 32.5 x 32.5 mm with 20mm lug size. The case is marked CN (Charles Nicolet was a partner of Stauffer & Co., the London branch of the Swiss firm of Stauffer, Son & Co. of La Chaux-de-Fonds), hallmarked London 1916 and numbered. The Swiss Peerless, manual wind, calibre 64 movement, with ‘pin-set’ hands, with 15 jewels, is signed S&Co. and numbered. The black enamel dial has white Arabic numerals with a subsidiary seconds dial and fine steel luminous ‘poire skelettes’ hands. The dial is signed IWC Shaffhausen 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.
