My aesthetic tastes remain
greatly influenced by my boyhood experiences of the 1950s. There was a cosiness to illustrators’
imagination of space travel, and the ‘look’ of rocket ships, spacesuits/helmets
in the Eagle’s Dan Dare strip is
still one I enjoy. Science fiction
themes were frequently encountered, very impressively so in the styling of
American –and eventually, if in a rather diluted form – English cars. Such things also began to feature as subject
matter in the new Pop Art that emerged as the next decade was approached. But while these things looked to the future,
something from the recent past also loomed very large: World War II. Our comics were full of depictions of the
conflict and aerial warfare was a particular favourite. Naturally, as the victors, the Brits were the
good guys, the Jerries bad, and the Spitfire was the king of the skies. The Airfix kit which was to blame for me
accidentally squirting polystyrene cement all over a brand new school blazer
was of the good old Lancaster – I was very conventional in revering the look
and exploits of that great lumbering bomber.
But I was also a bit
odd: secretly, I studied everything I
could about the German Luftwaffe.
Although at that stage not contesting the right and wrongs of the war, I
was finding nearly all aspects of the Luftwaffe much more charismatic than the
RAF versions – the planes, the insignia and badges, the uniforms, etc. And that is still my take. I like the menacing look and specification of
such machines as the Ju87, the Do17 and the Me262.
And in the realms of
horology, the watches issued to German flying personnel are prized collectibles
today. Foremost of the models was that
primarily intended for the use of an aircraft’s Observer – usually the
mission’s navigator. Known as the Beobachtungsuhr – often abbreviated to B-Uhr – and specified by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (Air
Ministry), five makers supplied the watches to the Luftwaffe: A Lange &
Sohne, IWC, Laco (Lacher & Co), Stowa and Wempe. Their brief was to build instruments with a
case diameter of 55mm, chronometer-quality movement with a Breguet type balance
spring, a hackable seconds hand, a crown with enough protrusion to allow a
glove hand to wind it, and a strap allowing wear over the sleeve of flight
clothing. The makers met the basic
functional requirements by using modified variants of their pocket watch
movements.
The best of the makers is A
Lange & Sohne, then and now considered supreme amongst the manufacturing
houses located in the German town of Glashutte.
The firm utilised its 48/1 movement for timepieces made between
September 1940 and April 1945 for the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine. The Luft B-Uhr had two iterations – initially
with a very simple dial (Type A), and, from 1942, with a more distinctive
layout featuring a small, inner, concentric hours track (Type B):
Left: Lange & Sohne B-Uhr type A; Right: Lange
& Sohne B-Uhr type B. Courtesy of
@TimeTitans
Left: Lange & Sohne B-Uhr Movement; Right: Lange
& Sohne B-Uhr Inside Rear Cover.
©
The Swiss Watch Co. (UK) Ltd 1996-2017
The earlier, Type A, is
today the less easy to find. For
both versions it is possible that data on the rear cover (inner face) reflects
the fact that L&S sometimes lacked the capacity to assemble the complete
timepiece. As a result one of the
following list of makers may appear in the Hersteller
field: Huber (Munich), Felsing (Berlin), (Schieron) Stuttgart, Schätzle &
Tschudin (Pforzheim), Wempe (Hamburg).
Whilst there is general
similarity of appearance between the watches produced by the five manufacturers,
some subtle differences are to be seen in terms of the crowns, hands and dial
numerals – comparison of the Type A versions made by IWC and Stowa, as below,
(left, and right, respectively), illustrate this – especially notable is the
style in which the numbers 6 and 9 are rendered on the IWC:
Left: IWC Type A. Courtesy www.dieselpunks.org; Right:
Stowa Type A.
Courtesy Lockdale Coins Ltd
The later, Type B, versions
show similar small detail variances.
Here, below, left to right, are those by Laco, Stowa and Wempe:
Of these the most rare is
the Stowa – on the company’s contemporary web-site it is stated that total
production may have been as little as 42 pieces!
And here are the four
movements not already shown, left to right: IWC; Laco; Wempe; Stowa
The stainless steel cases
were often finished in grey paint/lacquer and the Reichsluftfahrtministerium
reference number, FL 23883 was
commonly stamped into the side of the case at the 9 o’clock position. The serial number (Werk nr.) was stamped into
the outer face of the rear cover.
These watches did not
remain in the possession of the Luftwaffe flyers – they were issued to them,
mission by mission, to be returned on safe arrival back at base.
An impressive watch by
virtue of the clarity of the dial layouts and the case size. In recent times
there has been enough interest for all the original manufacturing houses/brand
names, excepting A Lange & Sohne, to be offering ‘re-interpretations’ (of
both the A and B Types) some of which look very much like the originals, but
which are somewhat smaller in overall dimensions.
