Time on the Wrist

 

QUESTION: I have an unusual wristwatch that belonged to my great grandfather. According to my father, he wore it while a soldier in World War I. Evidently, it was a special military watch that soldiers used to calculate the distance of mortar fire. What can you tell me about the history of this watch?

ANSWER: You, indeed, have a special watch. Wearing a wristwatch for men actually began after World War I. And it was because of the military the wristwatch is as we know it today.  

The word "watch" came from the Old English word woecce, meaning "watchman" because town watchmen used them to keep track of their shifts at work.

But it was military officers who first wore wristwatches. One chronograph had a scale calibrated to tell the difference in time between the flash of field artillery and the sound of the report. This helped a soldier know how far away the guns were.

However, wristwatches as they look today first appeared in the 1890s. Evolving from pocket watches, makers specifically developed them for women. And because of this, men didn’t wear them, continuing to use pocket watches instead.

Some historians believe that Abraham-Louis Breguet created the world's first wristwatch for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, in 1810. And by the 1850s, most watchmakers produced a variety of wristwatches, marketing most of them as bracelets for women.

So when and how did men begin to wear wristwatches?

Military men first began to wear wristwatches towards the end of the 19th century, when the importance of synchronizing maneuvers during war without potentially revealing the plan to the enemy through signaling became important. It was clear that using pocket watches while in the heat of battle or while mounted on a horse wasn’t practical, so officers began to strap the watches to their wrist. 

The Garstin Company of London patented a 'Watch Wristlet' design in 1893, although they had been producing similar designs from the 1880s. Garstin’s owners realized a market for men's wristwatches was opening up. Officers in the British Army began using wristwatches during colonial military campaigns in the 1880s, such as during the Anglo-Burma War of 1885.

During the Boer War, the importance of coordinating troop movements and synchronizing attacks against the highly mobile Boer insurgents increased. Subsequently, British officers began using wristwatches. The company Mappin & Webb began production of their successful “campaign watch” for soldiers during the campaign at the Sudan in 1898 and ramped up production for the Boer War a few years later.

These early models were essentially standard pocket watches fitted to a leather strap, but by the first decade of the 20th century, manufacturers began producing purpose-built wristwatches. The Swiss company, Dimier Frères & Cie patented a wristwatch design with the now standard wire strap lugs in 1903. 

Omega advertisements mentioned that soldiers used its wristwatches in the Anglo-Boer War not only to highlight their excellent quality but also to break through the wristwatches-are-for-women barrier.

When World War I broke out in 1914, air warfare was in its infant stages, thus creating  a heightened need for military watches. Military fighter pilots also found wristwatches to be as needed in the air as on the ground. With the increased sophistication of battle techniques, wristwatches for fighter pilots and ground soldiers became essential items. At that time, Hamilton first supplied its flagship military watch Khaki to the American army.

In the chaos of the trenches during the heat of battle, it was impossible for soldiers to rifle through their pockets for a watch. European soldiers began outfitting their watches with unbreakable glass to survive the trenches and radium to illuminate the display at night. Civilians saw the wristwatch’s practical benefits over the pocket watch and began wearing them. 

World War I dramatically shifted public perceptions on the propriety of the man's wristwatch and opened up a mass market in the post-war era. The creeping barrage artillery tactic, developed during the War, required precise synchronization between the artillery gunners and the infantry advancing behind the barrage. Manufacturers produced service watches specially designed for the rigors of trench warfare, with luminous dials and unbreakable glass. The British War Department began issuing wristwatches to combatants from 1917.

By the end of World War I, almost all enlisted men wore a wristwatch. After the War, the fashion of men wearing wristwatches soon caught on. In 1923, John Harwood invented the first successful automatic winding system. And by 1930, the ratio of wrist- to pocket watches was 50 to 1. Wristwatch ads boasted wristwatches “for men with the promise that a watch could make a man more soldier-like, more martial, more masculine.”

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Memorabilia From the Golden Age of Flight

QUESTION:  This watch belonged to my father-in- law. I've looked and looked for a similar one, so I would know how to insure it or even if its worth insuring, but I couldn’t find anything. What can you tell me about this wristwatch and is it collectible?

ANSWER: Your father-in-law evidently was a pilot for American Airlines. As the captain of the plane, he would have logged more flying hours than his co-pilots. Back in 1939, flights over long distances took many hours compared to those of today, so he could have easily amassed a million miles or more.

It seems that American Airlines chose to award its loyal, long-time pilots with something to commemorate their years of service. In this case, they gave your father-in-law a Bulova Montgomery watch from 1938, inscribed on the back “American Airlines, Million Miler,1939,” along with his name.

American Airlines had contracted with the Bulova Watch Company to be their official timekeeping company. This particular model was a popular one in the Art Deco style, however, it originally had a leather band with three horizontal groves running its length which accentuated the design of the watch case, itself.

This watch belongs in the category of aviation collectibles which includes anything used by employees of the airline, that never gets into the hands of passengers. It’s these unique items---awards, plaques, objects from the boardroom, luggage tags, models, uniforms, etc.—that make up aviation memorabilia collectibles. Most collectors prefer older objects, though some focus on specific carriers to narrow their field.

The Golden Age of Flight might be defined as the period extending from the first flight by the Wright Brothers to about 1950 or so. Items in this category are more out of the mainstream than those in the airline collectibles category—and naturally are harder to come by.

From the start of regular U.S. passenger service in 1914, travelers have saved a wide variety of airline memorabilia. Generally, these items have to do directly with passengers. But there’s a lot of items,

When the early airmail routes began offering seats for traveling passengers, they often included free meals or refreshments to tempt big-spenders away from traditional rail transport. Full meals were first served during the 1930s on china made by well-known companies like Wedgwood, Hall, Syracuse, Royal Doulton, and Homer Laughlin. These sets, designed to be lighter than household dinnerware, often included the airline’s logo or name in their graphics.

Besides these china place-settings, airlines required a variety of glassware, flatware, napkins, menus, and other food service items. But passenger travel also necessitated the use of more disposable pieces, like safety-direction cards, amenities kits, swizzle sticks with the airline’s logo, blankets, headrest covers, and baggage labels, all of which people collect today.

Aviation collectibles also include any equipment used by airline personnel or ground staff, much of which is linked to certain carriers. Crew uniforms and badges or “wings” have been used since the earliest days of air travel, with specific designs to indicate employee positions from flight attendants to pilots. Early figural metal badges, like a Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) pin with its Native American headdress logo, are sought for their rarity and their aesthetic appeal.

Many aviation collectors are former employees of the airlines. They would have had easy access to some of the materials, especially when things like maps and timetables needed to be updated. Old ones would have been thrown in the trash. Uniforms also needed to be updated from time to time, so older ones would again have had no use.

Collectors also favor certain defunct airlines, like Eastern, People, Braniff, and especially TWA and Pan Am. Pan Am was the trendsetter for the first half of the history of the airline industry. It was the first to offer long-distance, trans-Pacific travel on its Clippers and set the standard for design and style throughout the industry.

For more information on airline collectibles, read "Up, Up, and Away" in The Antiques Almanac and "Eating Above the Clouds" from the October 5, 2011 post of this blog.