Eaglemoss Military Watches Collection.
Issue 31 - 1940s French Air Force
by
, Apr 6, 2015 at 08:04 PM (12207 Views)
In 1926 two well established watch manufacturers in the German town of Glashutte joined forces with the aim of producing their own mechanical movements to compete with the neighbouring Swiss.
Two years after the start of World War II, work on the Tutima Flieger Chronograph was complete. Developed for the rigours of the new faster, higher flying, combat aircraft it was used by German pilots through the war.
The Russian army captured the factory in 1945, and salvaged much of the tooling enabling them to manufacture watches for themselves. The French military used a number of the Tutima watches, rebranded as IRAM, for their own pilots and also as a design template for future models.
Case
38.2mm plated and polished finish. 41mm including crown, 43mm lug to lug, 8.6mm deep. 33.8mm interior aperture. Groove effect bezel with red pointer at 12
5mm grooved crown 33mm flat glass.
Case backs embossed with Eaglemoss logo and description of the watch.
Dial
33.5mm black coloured dial.
Green printed minute scale at outer edge, Arabic numerals at at 5 minute intervals.
Hours indicated by arabic numerals
'Mercedes' style polished finish hours and minutes hand with green infill and thin straight seconds hand.
Standard EM Epson AL55a movement.
Strap
20mm tan leather, tapers slightly to a 18mm polished buckle, aprox 180-220mm fitting.
Again this watch is supposed to be a Pilot Chronograph, as with the previous issue 30 there is nothing to indicate this in the design of the watch.
There have been a number of French pilots watches in the collection recently I'm not sure why this one was not introduced as a 1940s German pilots watch. Which is what it would have been initially. It was only French after the War and was rebranded.
Here is a standard Tutima chronograph with the Stars and IRAM branding added by the French military.
And a modern reissue of the 1940s watch