Individually, watches which the War Office commissioned from 12 Swiss makers during the Second World War are not as highly rated as other military watches – but as a set they are a holy grail for British collectors.
All with black dials, luminous hands, shatterproof crystal and stainless-steel cases, they had 15-jewel movements and were stamped WWW for Watch, Wrist, Waterproof and the broad arrow used on government material.
Collectors refer to them as ‘The Dirty Dozen’. Presumably that coinage came after the 1967 Hollywood movie of the same name for there is nothing low-grade about the makers: Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lemania, Longines, IWC, Omega, Record, Timor and Vertex.