Veterans Day, Video of My Favorite American Made Military Watches of WWI

The Greatest Generation fascinates me,  and I believe that title should extend to the generation before it as well. Can’t imagine what those men, women, and teenagers went through on the battlefield. Not to mention the civilians as well.  May peace fall on us all one day, and Lady Justice punish those who try and take it away. 

Beautiful watches.

I thought you might like this advert Stan.

Killer advert showing how they were tested for sure! This one is in my latest book along with MANY others that have probably not been seen in nearly 100 years. There are actually several that have this "water tank" theme. This advert shows the "civilian version of the Field & Marine with the 14k solid gold case back disk, the military version had a sterling silver case back disk. And many more with an aviation theme. 

Yes, saw this other one for the mk.1 too, along with the one you posted on MWR.

I was able to find extremely detailed records as to why Depollier went from the Gen 1 to the Gen 2 case design in such a short period of time. It was at the request of the United States Army. Depollier worked in hand and hand with the U.S. Army on several aspects the final design for the Gen 2 watches. It truly is a fascinating story that will finally be told. Names, dates, places, reports, documents, ranks of the officers and so much more. Great advert!!!!!

Nice work.

I really do hope you can find a mk.1, if anyone can Stan can! 😁

According to the records I found there are ONLY 14 Gen 1 Depollier Waterproof Watches that MIGHT still be out there. When the U.S. Army wanted changes to the original Gen 1 design hundreds of the Gen 1s were put in the scrap bin and destroyed and the Gen 2 was born. When I read this my jaw hit the floor, a sad moment for sure. With only 14 of them possibly still existing it will be a herculean task to find one. If one is ever found don't be surprised if it is a prototype case made of brass with NO case finish. Might not have any case markings under the case back either. The case design & crown design were changing rapidly in mid to late 1918 to suit the Army's Mil Spec requirement that was laid out, which I have.

Looking at the last advert, it looks to be an actual photo of the tank with finished watches in there, so possibly a few complete examples could be out there?

Stan, in the tank with three gen.1 suspended, the left watch appears to have the crown at 9 o'clock. If as I believe and noted in my last post that the image is an actual photo, then this means there are two versions of the gen.1 model.

The crown in this position would also alleviate any discomfort from the longer crown digging into the wearers wrist.

Could this have been another way Depollier was trying to overcome the problem?

With some of these adverts it is SO hard to tell if it is an illustration or an actual picture due to the low grade newspaper print that they were published on. This advert with the gentleman doing the waterproof testing looks like a photograph of a real person, not an illustration. But, other parts of the advert look to be drawn perhaps. I remember 7 or 8 years ago we had discussions about mistakes in the illustrations that were drawn for the adverts, not these but others. As for the advert you posted above, it does look real in some portions while other section appear to be drawn. I've never seen a Depollier with the crown at the 9 o'clock position. It would be a bit weird. Waltham would have to use an open faced movement but the dial feet would have to be spun so the dial could be attached to the movement. That seems like an offal lot of extra work to make this setup work but anything is possible. But keep in mind that the soldier would have to take the watch off to wind it up, unless he was a lefty. Some things like this will probably never be known but you do make a great point.  

Another thing that makes this far more difficult is the way many of the adverts/magazines were stored over the past 100+ years. I was able to find MANY new Depollier waterproof adverts that have not been seen yet for my book. But, due to the way they were stored, in a dark, dank, moist basement they are damaged. A lot of mold got on the pages and there are thousands of little mold spots all over them. We did the BEST we could to remove the mold dots after being scanned but the final results on some are not that great. This makes it even harder to decide it it is a real picture or an illustration. I'm just glad I found them and got them scanned before they degrade even further and become useless. 

That is a lot of Radium 😬

I think only 4 of them still have the original radium lume. I re-did the lume on the vast majority of them myself using a dark brown color that I mix up here in the shop. I use safe modern materials.

Only time I've ever seen a Depollier was at the Horology museum in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Next time I'm in Switzerland that museum is on my list of places to visit for sure!

It's absolutely worth the effort if you find yourself in Switzerland, there is a really cool little horology antique shop just round the corner from it as well.

The other one to visit if you get the chance is the Patek Philippe museum in Geneva, there is a whole floor dedicated to non Patek watches with several examples from the likes of Breguet, Mudge, Arnold and LeRoy. 

I agree, parts of the ad are drawn, and parts look like they are actual photos called half-tones.

The two lower images are drawn, the two upper ones look like actual photo images, a lot of definition in them with things like light reflection through the water.