Eaglemoss Military Watches Collection.

In 1919 the Sons of George Eberhard took a larger role in the running of the company and released Eberhard & Co's first "wrist" chronograph. The link between this watch and the Italian Army is a little tenuous. It is quite possible that Army Officers would have purchased the Eberhard & Co wristwatch, and having a wrist Chronograph would certainly have been useful for ranging artillery, however at the time Italy was in the midst of a very difficult period.
Following the First World War Italy had been promised much in the way of territory in the Treaty of London, but this failed to happen and in the post war period much going wrong within Italy was blamed on the Allies as well as the government. There was major unemployment, huge war debts and rampant inflation, which the Italian Government was failing to deal with. in one incident 2600 Italian troops forced the withdrawal of the supposedly friendly Allied forces from the port of Fiume.
Against this background Italy saw the rise of the right wing Fasci Rivoluzionari d'Azione Internazionalista, the Fascists, led by Mussolini, and the country came close to civil war before the King agreed to hand Mussolini and the Fascist Party control of the government.



Case
Gold coloured 39.8mm case, 42mm with the crown, 9.2mm deep.
Cast Lug rings 57.8mm lug to lug 20mm wide
Interior aperture 35.2mm across, 9.2mm deep. 4mm Crown 34.5mm flat glass
Case engraved with watch description.
Dial
35mm Ivory colour dial.
Red printed tachymetric scale on outer edge. Black printed Minutes scale
Hours indicated with Black Arabic numerals from 1 through 11 inclusive and a red 12.
Black painted, breguet style hours and minutes hands, Seconds hand is slim and black
Strap
Dark tan PU 'leather' mock Croc, 18mm wide, narrows to 16mm gold coloured buckle. approx. fitting 180-225mm


detail of hands and dial.