Elgin - U.S. Navigation Hacking Watch - Black 24-Hour Dial - Circa 1953

Hours into a night flight, the cabin dark and the only light the glow of the panel, a navigator did his work in twenty-four-hour time, the way the whole operation ran. The orders that put him in the air, the log on his knee, the tables he checked his sights against, all of it counted the hours straight through to twenty-four, where three in the afternoon is fifteen hundred. An ordinary watch would leave him working that out in his head. This Elgin spared him the step: a second ring of figures, thirteen through twenty-four, set inside the usual twelve, so military time reads straight off the dial. The hands and numerals carry enough radium to be read in that dark cockpit. The design itself comes down straight from the A-11, the watch the American air forces flew through the Second World War.

These do not come up for sale. As I write this there is not one for sale on eBay anywhere, and the navigation Elgins that do surface have usually paid for their flying years, the radium gone or flaking, the dial swapped for a lesser one. This watch came through whole. The dial is original and the lume is original, the case has never seen a polishing wheel, and the whole of it is in exceptional condition.

Deep black, the dial carries its hours in luminous Arabic numerals, a luminous dot at each. It is signed Elgin. The radium has aged to an uneven amber, original to the watch and gone soft with the years, and laid across the black it is arresting in the hand. A fine sweep hand runs the seconds around an outer track marked off in small numerals.

The case is stainless steel from the Star Watch Case Company, stamped U.S. 1917-H on the back with the ordnance number beneath it, a screw back closing over an inner dust cover that sealed the movement against dust and moisture. Those stamps are the issue marks, the military's record of a watch it bought and put into service.

Inside is the Elgin caliber 685, eighteen jewels, a center sweep seconds movement that hacks: pull the crown and the seconds hand stops dead, so a crew could set every watch to the same second before a mission. It carries one refinement the watchmakers will notice. Elgin drove the sweep through a sprung gilt double wheel, an anti-backlash device used on only a handful of grades and only briefly, a cleaner solution than the friction spring of the wartime movements, and the reason the seconds here sweep without a stutter.

It wears a genuine military issue band of green webbing by the Brite Company, new old stock and never used, the right strap for the watch.

The watch is running and keeping good time.

Terms: Please review all photos carefully as they are a part of the listing. This is a vintage timepiece. Accuracy, power reserve, and water resistance are not guaranteed. Vintage watches may require periodic service. Performance can vary with wear, temperature, and position.

I am happy to service any unserviced watch listed on the site, please inquire about service charges when purchasing.

All sales final.