Eaglemoss Military Watches Collection.

President Woodrow Wilson tried to keep The United States out of World War 1. He understood that the Army stood at just under 100.000 men in the ranks, a small number compared to the British and French forces, that they were not trained in trench warfare and were poorly equipped. In 1915 there had been a serious attempt to actually cut military funding, even the loss of 128 American citizens when a German submarine sunk the British Ocean Liner Lusitania in May of that year failed to force Wilson's hand. Only the threat of a German funded Mexican Army invading the USA in 1917 finally changed Wilsons stance, and the US declared war on Germany.
A call went out in the US for volunteers in the newly formed American Expeditionary Force and by June 1917 an advance force of 14,000 US personnel under the command of Major General John J. Pershing came to Europe, their numbers kept coming and by spring of 1918 nearly 10,000 new troops were joining the Allied forces, numbers which the combined German, Austro-Hungarian could not hope to match and the war was slowly brought to a close.
The US serviceman mainly used existing British and French equipment, such as artillery tanks and aircraft that would be difficult to transport across the Atlantic, and also contracted out to French manufacturers, however, the 'Trench' watches they used were generally made by a US manufacturer Elgin. these watches were invaluable tools in allowing the troops to coordinate troop movements and patrols, many were used right through until WWII. The cushion case and squared font of the hour marks make the Elgin very distinctive, however, many military procured watches were not marked as such, so it is difficult to correctly identify genuine Military Elgin Trench watches.





Case
Polished 313mm cushion style case, 33.5mm with crown, 8.3mm deep, 37mm Lug to Lug, 16mm lug width.
Interior diameter 26.5mm, 6mm deep, 5mm crown, 26.5mm flat glass,

Dial
26.5mm Black dial, white minutes scale with dots at 5-minute marks, Distinctive white Arabic hour markers 1 through 12
Polished Cathedral style hour and minute hands with white infill, and a slim polished centre seconds hand with an arrow tip
Strap
Black 16mm Nylon strap, polished buckle, approx. fitting 175/215mm