Luftwaffe Air crew watches?

[Uwe W.]

Just to be clear, the Nuts comment was geared toward the Nazi leaders, I know most of the everyday solders or aircrews were just doing what they were told and for the most part it was not different then what a US or British solder would be doing. Now I am talking about normal Wehrmacht not Waffen SS troops. With that said if you have a complete list I would love to see it.

Thanks for clearing that up. I fully agree with your sentiments although I don't think the Waffen SS can fall under a blanket statement. However, the political SS units certainly could be considered as the epitome of evil.

I'll work on that list when I have some more time and post it in this thread.

[Uwe W.]

As promised, here the list. I’ve limited it to wrist watches issued or worn by Luftwaffe air and ground crews, and paratroopers. That is to say that I’m excluding other official timekeeping devices used by the Luftwaffe such as chronometers (used as master clocks), stopwatches, aircraft clocks, communication clocks, pocket watches and special presentation watches.

While there are rare exceptions that I might have missed, these watch brands represent the bulk of what was used. What made this list more difficult to compile is that German manufacturers often contracted out to Swiss movement manufacturers to supply the movements to be installed in their watches; it was as common a practice then as it is now. Worse yet, when the German manufacturers could not keep up with the demand for timepieces, they also contracted out the assembly of their watches to many other firms. I’ve listed the majority of the watch manufacturers and movement manufacturers used, but not the alternate assembly firms.


Watch brands:

A. Lange & Söhne (navigation)
Aeschbach (general purpose)
Arista (general purpose)
Berg (general purpose)
Breitling (chronograph)
Hanhart (chronograph)
Helvetia (general purpose)
Heuer (chronograph)
IWC (navigation)
Laco (Lacher & Co.) (navigation)
Lemania (chronograph)
Leonidas (chronograph)
Longines (general purpose)
Minerva (chronograph, general purpose)
Nila (general purpose)
Para (general purpose)
Stowa (Walter Storz) (navigation, general purpose)
Tutima (chronograph)
Universal (chronograph)
Wagner (general purpose)
Wempe (navigation)
Zenith (general purpose)


Movements:
A. Lange & Söhne (Tutima)
Deutsche Uhrenfabrikation Glashütte (Lange)
Durowe (Laco)
Excelsior Park (Wempe)
Heuer (Wempe)
Longines (Wempe)
Minerva (Wempe)
Präzisions-Uhren (Wempe)
Thommen (Wempe)
Union Dürrstein (Lange)
Unitas (Stowa)
Urofa (Tutima)
Valjoux (Heuer, Wempe, Minerva, Leonidas)


With regard to the question of Swiss neutrality and their supply of watches to the German Forces, it should be noted that they supplied much more. Everything from anti-aircraft cannons to U-boot engines came from Switzerland during the war. War it turns out is great for business, a fact that continues to be played out on the world stage to this day.

[WWIIBuff]

thanks, great list, can I ask where you found the information?

[Uwe W.]

thanks, great list, can I ask where you found the information?

I have a number of reference books; some such as such as Konrad Knirim's 'Military Timepieces' are more obvious, but it's surprising what kind of information can be gleaned from less obvious sources such as Helmut Blocksdorf's 'HITLER'S SECRET COMMANDOS: Operations of the K-Verband'.

[muttley]

and even britain only got saved by a narrow stretch of water called the channel.

It's really hard to tell on the 'net' sometimes, the tone of a post - but I assume this is a joke, and not meant to disrespect the English, Commonwealth, and even American, pilots who gave their lives defeating Hitler's fighters over the English Channel with such ferocity Hitler put off his invasion plans indefinitely and turned his attentions elsewhere.
The little strip of water between France and England played no part (I'm aware of) in saving England from invasion.
Apologies if I misread your post.

[omega564]

don't forget about junhans!

[silent sam]

Nuts? Well, you had a choice. You either followed orders and flew for Dur Fuehrer, or you were hung from a meat hook by the Gestapo and left to rot (along with the rest of your family).

Flying in a fully loaded Heinkel over Britain was not an act of bravery as much as one of desperation. All told more than 250,000 airmen were lost in WWII. The majority were German.

I understand that flying around for hours with a full bomb load of high explosives in an unheated aluminum gas can w/ wings at 4 miles high over enemy territiory is not for the faint of heart (and not much fun either.) Thank you Arthur and company for what you did for us. It's a debt that can never be paid.

Nobody won that ****ed war. Some simply lost less than others. Some are still paying the bill long after the last shot was fired. So it is for any war. From the son of a WWII DAV who served in the Americal Division on a 155 Long Tom gun crew at Guadalcanal and New Guinea. He is finally at peace now. I'll remember for him. Thanks again Art. SS

[Henn]

A couple of B-Uhren with some info.

PDF document (approx. 500kb) in german and english.

http://www.knirim.de/xlwlang.pdf

[omega564]

what about junhans

[Uwe W.]

what about junhans

You mean Junghans?

As I stated in the post with my list: "I’ve limited it to wrist watches issued or worn by Luftwaffe air and ground crews, and paratroopers. That is to say that I’m excluding other official timekeeping devices used by the Luftwaffe such as chronometers (used as master clocks), stopwatches, aircraft clocks, communication clocks, pocket watches and special presentation watches."

I'm aware of Junghans bord uhrs (aircraft clocks) but couldn't find anything in my reference books that indicated they manufacturered wrist watches worn by flight crew. If you have any information to the contrary please post it. I have also read somewhere that Junghans also made a Kampfschwimmer watch but to date I have yet to find any more information on such a variation.

As for the political comments regarding the war, I would hope we can all respect that this is a watch forum and keep our personal interpretations and misconceptions of history for forums that deal with that subject matter.