Delbana SS WWII watch? Or is it🧐

Delbona has a "time capsule" section on their website. For some reason this watch isnt listed there.... haha.

I'm 90% sure it's fake, though those who know more are more than welcome to give me a bashing. While propaganda watches were made surviving ones are few and far between. They are known to be faked, with most fakes being from the 50s. The originals were made for propaganda purposes and for high ranking Nazis. Nazis in Germany. Who spoke German. See where I'm going with this?

Also, I've never seen that symbol on the left side before, and I've read a LOT about WW2 and the Weimar Republic. If anyone knows please enlighten me

Maybe because all that genocide thing 🧐🤦‍♂

That is a 1950’s watch.

Conversation stopper 🤣

Yeah... By the style it looks like 50s watch. But I cant figure out why would Delbana make them 10 years after the war. Kinda think that people wouldn't want those kind of simbols back then being popular.

Anyone with a little talent and a steady hand can paint a dial.

I believe it is the symbol for the 1st SS Panzer Division.

This I knew nothing about…nor have I ever heard about this brand or the controversy about this possible doppelgänger. Just another example why WatchCrunch is so great — learning about things like this.

Why isn't everyone's first question, "Why does your friend have Nazi memorabilia and why are you still friends?" Especially when this isn't Nazi memorabilia, per se, but a post-war white supremacy propaganda piece?

That's the unit insignia of the Waffen-SS's 12th SS Panzer Division, Hitlerjugend.

Close! It's the 12th SS Panzer Division's insignia. The 1st SS Panzer Division insignia is just the skeleton key, with no s-rune overlayed on it.

In that case, I'm out!

I would be 0 for 2.

Ah thank you

Complete and utter fake.

I have seen both the "lightening" and the "key" symbol, especially on tanks and Waffen SS did run some tanks...

Personally I doubt the watch is from WWII, let alone “official issue” kit. I would not be surprised though if one or more unit veterans - the patch on the left is the insignia of the 12th SS Panzer Division - had the watch dial made after the war as a memento. Not that they would wear it in public though, given the legalities…or illegalities of doing so in post war Europe. Rather for wear in the privacy of their homes or when in the private company of old comrades at a reunion or some such.

That said, neither would it surprise me if it’s simply fake militaria. Huge market for that.

My grandfather came home from the war with one of those long vertical Nazi banners they hung under windows. Other than the time my grandmother aired it out on the clothes line so my mother could take it to school for show and tell, nobody thought much about it. But that's the point, it was fit to go to show and tell. Because Nazis were the enemy and we'd kicked their asses. It wasn't about celebrating them, it was celebrating us.

I don't know how old you are, but for most Americans my age the Nazis had become not much of a big deal by the 90s (apologies to anyone who's Jewish, or just had a worse family experience with WWII than I did). Not that anybody liked them, they were just history (again, I apologize for my younger self). Unfortunately, many of us misunderstood the situation and didn't realize that stupid sh*t like that always comes back. While I always respected the horror they visited on the world, they were just so defeated and universally reviled that they seemed almost silly.

In more modern times I've come to understand that the sorts of people who become Nazis are in every country at all times just waiting for the chance to do some evil sh*t. My point is that some people collect that stuff or have it from their family members who stole it off Nazis. While I won't, it's possible to own a watch like that purely as a historical item. If it were real.

Yep, while it's not beyond the realm of possibility in the slightest for watches to be among the many things looted by allied troops at the end of WW2 (especially given their size and ease of transport), I don't think the original watches would have been as obliging to have their dials written in English, LOL.

why the actual f would anyone want one of these.... If anyone show this to me, I would politely knock it out of their hands and then stomp on it repeatedly. .. or at least I would want to. I would however make note to never ever ever be around that person ever again.

I live in Europe 🤷🏻‍♂️

And my country was occupied by the germans. So there was and were a lot of leftovers from the war being found. And people love collecting them.

I know a few people who love collecting WWII memorabilia and even have a few german helmets found in the woods.

There are also a few german bunkera still leftover after the war a few km from where I live.

Honestly, I think that my Acuantice (not a freind)🤣 think this is the real deal and that's why he keeps it 🤷🏻‍♂️

Reminds me of a discussion I had with someone who showed me a Luger P08 a family member had acquired, and he was concerned that it was a fake because "it lacked markings". The markings were indeed consistent with a civilian firearm, produced in the 1930s, which also explained its good condition.

Still that person was disappointed because the pistol didn't look like he thought it would.

Any type of memorabilia from that time period I would consider fake until proven otherwise.

It really is a fraught question. I am plenty old enough to be anti-Nazi no matter what decade we're talking 😉, and I love history so I get the whole war-trophy thing. And now knowing that the OP lives in Europe, that adds to availability, but also gives a slightly different spin to possible Neo-Nazi origins of the piece. All of that said, it is probably a post-war unit reunion piece created before German veterans were properly ashamed of the Nazi part of their war service. 🫤 (Though I think all Germans by the Fifties knew the SS were bad.) And all this from a watch! How I love history. 🤓

Argh... Waste of a good watch!