Eaglemoss Military Watches Collection.
Issue 2 - 1940s Germany, Luftwaffe Aviator
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, Dec 10, 2014 at 10:58 AM (11221 Views)
This should more accurately be called the Observers watch. B-Uhr is an abbreviation for Beobachtungs-uhr, literally Observation watch, The B-Uhr type-B style dial was designed to be read quickly and easily in the high stress situations Pilots would often experience. The magazine states that the original versions were made by a number of companies including: A. Lange & Sohne, Stowa, IWC, Wempe, and Laco, companies who are still amongst the most highly regarded watch manufacturers today. Originally these watches were made to be worn over a thick flight suit and came on a leather strap that could wrap around a bare wrist twice over.
Case
48mm plated and polished finish. Grooved texture finish around bezel. 50.8mm including crown, 54.3mm lug to lug, 9.2mm deep. 43.5mm interior aperture.
6mm grooved crown. 41.5mm flat glass.
As with all early casebacks, embossed with Eaglemoss logo only.
Dial
B-Uhr, flieger type-B style dial,
42.5mm black painted dial with green printed minute scale at outer edge, large green triangle at 00 roman numerals at at 5 minute intervals.
On a smaller secondary scale printed in white, Hours indicated with roman numerals with triangles at 12-3-6-9.
All Numbers and marks have good luminous effect.
Sword shaped hours and minutes hand and thin straight seconds hand.Green lume on hours and minutes hands.
NB: It’s my opinion that the hour hand is over long on this face, and perhaps the hour scale too small, ideally the hand wouldn’t reach past the scale.
Standard EM Epson AL55a movement.
Strap
24mm Brown leather, secured at lugs by two rivets, tapers slightly to a 22mm polished buckle, aprox 170-210mm fitting.
NB: in spite of the large case size, the strap is short and i wear this on the third hole on my 195mm wrist.
All marks have a good luminous effect
This picture illustrates my point about the hands and the scale being out of proportion on the EM watch, though this Moscow Time watch has more of a hybrid type-A dial.
There have been a number of reproductions made and many B-Uhr style watches are manufactured today, the dial is very easy to read quickly, and is still popular.