The IWC Watch Wrist Waterproof WWW - Time514

The IWC Watch Wrist Waterproof WWW
Adrian van der Meijden and Hans Goerter search for the KNIL edition
Introduction
Several articles have been written on
IWC’s most famous military wrist watch
the Mark 11. However, before the
launch of Mark 11 in 1948, IWC
produced 6000 military wrist watches,
often called ‘Mark 10’. Expert collectors,
and IWC historian Juergen King, avoid
using this incorrect name using instead
WWW (Watch Wrist Waterproof) as the
correct name.
The name Mark 9, given to IWC’s
special watch for pilots, is also wrong
and evidence shows that this watch was
not a military time piece.
Thomas Koenig (IWC researcher)
believes that many WWW’s were
destroyed in the mid seventies because
they had Radium-226 on the dial and
hands. When stored in large quantities,
these watches were considered as a
source of substantial radioactivity.
Unfortunately along with with the
disposal of the watches were important
archive papers and documents.
In 2001, a special IWC WWW
dedicated website was set up, with
more than 150 WWW’s produced by the
Schaffhausen Company, categorised
from all over the world:
(http://www.sfu.ca/~mmh/MarkX.htm)
Military watches usually have typical
markings, which will be described later,
however, a few WWW IWC’s have an
additional inscription: ‘KNIL’- ‘Koninklijk
Nederlands Indisch Leger’ or ‘Royal
Figure 1: 12 brands of WWW. (Picture courtesy Hans Lee.)
Dutch Army of the East Indies’. Less
than 10 pieces have been documented
so far, with the owners living mainly in
Australia and Japan.
The East Indies were a Dutch colony for
nearly 300 years before the name was
changed in 1945 to Indonesia. Although
Indonesia declared its independence for
the archipel in 1945, the Dutch did not
acknowledge this until July 1950.
During World War II, the KNIL army
fought against the Japanese occupation
of East Indies and from 1945-1950
there were several military actions
between the KNIL army and the
Indonesian freedom fighters.
In 1950 the KNIL army ceased to exist.
In this article, we describe how the
WWW IWC was most probably
introduced into the KNIL army. Our
interest in researching the fate of this
IWC icon watch is based on the fact that
both authors are avid IWC collectors
and the first author has the Dutch
nationality.
WWW specifications
Towards the end of the Second World
War, the War Department procured the
first serious military wristwatches
destined for the British armed forces.
*Clear, black, luminous dial
*15 jewel movement, accurate over a
wide variety of conditions
*Subsidiary seconds dial
*Tough, shatterproof, Perspex glass
*Rugged case, capable of diminishing
the results of shocks
*Waterproof to a level higher than
normal
*Water resistant winding crown of good
size.
There were 12 Swiss watch brands that
were selected by the War Department
(Figure1). These were: Buren, Cyma,
Eterna, Grana, IWC , JLC, Lemanina,
Longines, Omega, Record, Timor and
Vertex. About half of these brands do
not exist anymore or are operating
under a different name.
The similarity between these 12
different WWW’s is remarkable. To meet
the specification waterproof, all brands
used a screwed case back with the
exception of one IWC.
A snap-on back was used by IWC. A
lead seal between case and case back
was applied by the Schaffhausen
company to prevent penetration of
water into the watch.
IWC WWW Data
The data in this paragraph has been
retrieved mainly by Thomas Koenig and
Juergen King. Most of these facts may
be known to expert collectors but a few
new details have been found by us.
Unlike the Mark 11, the IWC W.W.W.
was not produced for the Royal Air
Force but for the Royal Army.
Information in the IWC archives written
on 21-02-1945 was as follows:
*Case numbers 1131001-1137000 ,
6000 pieces.
*Calotte cal. 83-12 lignes(26,5 mm)
*Hand wound
*15 and 16 jewels
*Acier inoxydable,forme ronde
*Etanche (waterproof)
*Fixed soldered pin bars
All 6000 were produced in one large
batch and no data exist on individual
watches in the IWC archives.
On the back, there is the inscription
W.W.W. and the Broad Arrow (Figure
2).
The Broad Arrow indicates that the
watch is owned by the British Crown.
This symbol was first seen on
government property, including clocks
and watches, from 1680.
The five digit number after ‘M’
represents the individual serial number,
with the ‘M’ indicating that the watch has
been made by IWC. The other 11 WWW
brands had other capitals on the
caseback to identify the manufacturer.
272 July 2007 Horological Journal

Figure 2: Caseback. Figure 3: Inner side of case. Figure 4: Movement
For instance JLC used ‘F’, Omega used
‘Y’ and Vertex had ‘A’ on the case back.
If one subtracts the M-number from the
case number, one always gets the
number 1118980.
For example case number 1132618,
minus M-number 13638 leads to
1118980.
The movement was not protected
against magnetism by a soft iron lid, as
was done later for the Mark 11.The
inner side of the case back showed the
case number, the oval IWC stamp and
the words ‘stainless steel’ (Figure 3).
All movements were cal. 83-12 (Figure
4). They were equipped with a Breguet
overcoil, frequence 18.000 bpm (2,5Hz)
and there was a bi-metallic balance.
From a total of 68.400 cal. 83
movements produced between 1930
and 1947, 10.800 had an incabloc
shock resistance device.
None of the WWW's had an incabloc,
but there was a kind of flexible ring
around the movement which could
absorb shocks to some degree,
protecting in such way the complete
movement and not only the balance
shaft.
The original dial had a ‘railroad’ track
around the outer edge and a small one
around the the subsecond dial, located
at 6 o’clock (Figure 5).
The letters ‘IWC’ were visible in a small
oval under the 12. There were Arabic
numbers. Dots of luminous paint were
applied at each digit and on the hands.
The paint contained Radium-226, a
highly radioactive material.
Many ‘surviving’ WWW’s do not have
the original dial, but have been replaced
by Tritium containing dials, which were
far less dangerous (Figure 6). These
dials are called by MoD (Ministry of
Defence) dials by collectors.
A few watches are known with a ‘NATO
dial’ Here an extra printing can be seen:
W10/445-5890 (Figure 7). According to
Greg Steer these dials were probably
been introduced after 1960, even
possibly between 1970-1980.
IWC did not deliver directly to the MoD
but to a watch manufacturer in London,
Moise Dreyfuss Ltd, 88/89 Hatton
Gardens. During World War II, IWC also
delivered military watches to the
German army, but not directly. Watches
were supplied to civilian wholesalers in
Cologne (Gerl and Schipper) and Berlin
(Heindorf).
The first IWC WWW sample watch was
sent to London on May 23rd 1945.
Shipment remained low until June 19th,
but increased later. On December 15th,
1945, all 6000 pieces had been sent to
London (Table 1).
IWC WWW after 1945
While the first delivery took place on
May 23, 1945, World War II ended a few
weeks earlier in Europe. The Japanese
surrendered on August 15 after the
atomic bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. This meant that the British
army would have had a stock of
thousands of brand new IWC WWW’s at
the end of 1945. However, the KNIL
army was freed of the Japanese
Date Quantities Date Quantities
1945-05-23 1 1945-06-19 72
1945-05-31 6 1945-06-19 480
1945-05-18 6 1945-07-02 600
1945-05-31 6 1945-07-13 600
1945-05-31 6 1945-08-22 600
1945-05-31 18 1945-09-20 600
1945-05-31 60 1945-10-09 600
1945-05-31 42 1945-10-31 600
1945-06-19 24 1945-11-19 600
1945-06-19 6 1945-11-30 600
1945-06-19 24 1945-12-15 450
Total sum (without sample): 6000
Figure 5: Original dial.
Figure 6: MoD dial.
Figure 7: NATO Dial.
Horological Journal July 2007 273

Figure 8: KNIL casebacks
occupation, but by no means of the
Indonesian freedom fighters. The KNIL
tried to buy weapons, vehicles and
supplies all over the world. Nations with
excellent weapons (USA, Great Britain)
were the allies of Holland during the
war, but did not support the view of the
Dutch, concerning the conflict with the
Indonesians, and therefore were
reluctant to sell military goods.
Watches, however, were less of a
problem to obtain.
We have tried to find out how and when
the KNIL ordered the IWC WWW and
have searched the archives of the
Netherlands Purchase Committee
(NPC), which was active during the war
in New York. The committee was
authorised by the Dutch government,
which resided in exile in London, to buy
military goods. Most of the NPC
archives have been scattered over the
USA or have been destroyed, so we
have searched the National Archives
and Archives of Army Museums in the
Netherlands. We have contacted the
libraries of the Imperial War Museum,
the National Army Museum and the
Royal Electrical and Mechanical
Engineers (REME) in the UK.The
REME is important as they serviced
W.W.W. watches in Ashford, Middlesex.
Mr B Baxter, the Technical Historian of
REME, said that no documents on the
IWC WWW are present anymore.
In 1995, A Taylerson published ‘Military
Timepieces - Watches Issued to British
Armed Forces(1870-1970)’ but it
provides no information on the IWC
WWW, nor does Z Weselowski in his
book ‘A concise guide to military time
pieces 1880-1990’.
Research in the library of the Royal
Dutch Army and Weapon Museum in
Delft, the Netherlands, revealed that a
considerable number of Dutch young
men escaped from the German
occupation and were successful in
reaching England. They used the same
routes as the British war pilots who were
shot down by the Germans over
Holland, with most travelling via Spain.
In England, they were recruited as war
volunteers, and received military and
technical training from British
instructors in Wolverhampton, Glasgow,
and also at REME in Ashford. Their
technical education consisted mainly of
being able repair and maintain weapons
and war vehicles. The Dutch copied the
REME model and set up a similar
service organisation up in the East
Indies, using an almost identical name -
IEME (Indian Electrical and Mechanical
Engineers).The IEME was completely
self supporting and the personnel
repaired tanks, trucks, radio’s, guns and
camera’s. There were no watchmakers
in the KNIL army but there were
instrument makers to repair optical
instruments and occasionally watches.
One instrument-maker said: ‘The most
difficult item that I had to make was a
tiny shaft for a watch. On one end its
diameter was 0,64mm and on the other
end 0,36mm.’
Absolutely nothing was sent for repair to
Holland or Switzerland, as the KNIL was
Figure 9: KNIL veteran Figure 8: KNIL veteran memorial
10,000 miles from home and shipments
to and from Europe simply took too
long.
While the classic and uniform inscription
on the IWC WWW watches have been
described previously, the added extra
KNIL inscription is by no means uniform
(Figure 8).
Note that the markings have sometimes
been stamped but that other techniques
have also been used. In two of the five
watches the original fixed pin bars have
been replaced by spring bars.
It differs from place, letter type and
marking technique. Certainly the KNIL
inscription was not done in
Schaffhausen and almost certain not by
REME in Ashford, but by IEME in the
East Indies. As there were multiple
service units, scattered over the
immense large country, it is plausible
that engraving techniques were not
done in the same way. We doubt that
any service was necessary for the
watches as they were brand new when
purchased in 1946.The 4 digit number
engraved under KNIL represents the
KNIL numbering.
The origin and meaning of this
numbering has not been tracked by us.
KNIL Testimony
Although we assumed that the IWC
WWW probably has been used by Air
Force KNIL military personnel, we now
have evidence that this is not the case.
Mr Gerard Casius reviewed the NPC
archives looking at air planes and Air
Force supplies used by the KNIL. The
archives were still intact 30 years ago
274 July 2007 Horological Journal

when he performed his research. Recently, he interviewed
KNIL pilots who operated from 1946-1950.
Pilots had so few watches during those days that they had to
borrow watches from each other for each separate flight. No
IWC’s could be tracked. Some of the watches were Elgin,
presented to the pilots when they picked up their Mitchell
Bombers at the factory in Dallas, Texas. Other watches were
private property after the army had given permission for crew
members to buy their own watch.
We could not retrieve any data on what type of watch has
been worn by the Navy part of KNIL. As the majority of troops
were Ground Forces it seems logical that is where the IWC
W.W.W. has been used but we have no absolute proof.
Arnhem, in the Netherlands, is the only place worldwide where
war veterans from the KNIL still live in a nursing home :
‘Bronbeek’ (Figures 9 & 10). The average age of the veterans
is 82 years. In the museum of this home we found three
watches with KNIL inscriptions - 2 Tissot and 1 Invicta Suisse,
but unfortunately there was no IWC in the collection.
Conclusion
Although IWC produced 6000 WWW’s, this watch is now rare
and much sought after by collectors. The KNIL army used
some of these watches, and these have an additional
inscription. Less than 10 are known and all are owned by
private collectors. There are no KNIL IWC in museums in
either the UK or the Netherlands which is regrettable as this
famous watch has played a substantial role in the Dutch
military history.
If any HJ readers has additional information or corrections, we
would welcome their comments.
Acknowledgements
We want to thank B Baxter, G Casius, M Henry, K Knirim, T
Koenig, G Steer and PjC Verhoeven for their help in the
research for this article.
Literature
Weselowski, Z.M.,
A concise guide to military timepieces 1880-1990.
The Crowood Press,1996.
Knirim, K.
Military timepieces.
150 years watches and clocks for the German forces.
Verlag Peter Pomp,2002.
Taylerson,A.,
Military timepieces :
Watches issued to British Armed Forces 1870-1970.
HorologicalJournal,Sept./Oct. 1995(British Horological
Institute).
Gaag,P van de
De geschiedenis van de 1e Infanterie Brigade Werkplaats 87
in Engeland,Nederland en Nederlands Indie 1946-1950.
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KNIL en KL in Nederlands-Indie
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Adrian van der Meijden & Hans Goerter
Horological Journal July 2007 275