Waltham
aeronovale us navy usmc - Ordonnance Department USA

Military watch — Waltham Navigation Watch from the US Navy, dated 1942. This white-dial navigation watch was originally part of a batch intended for the US Army but was reassigned during World War II to the US Navy and the Marine Corps. The blued cathedral hands are typical of naval aviation watches, as is the slightly oversized crown designed to be operated while wearing gloves.

Manual-winding mechanical movement, 17 jewels, Waltham Cal. 6/0-D. This movement features a small seconds subdial at 6 o’clock with a so-called "fly wing" shaped aviation hand. A true collector’s piece with a hacking seconds function (“hack-watch”), it was worn on the wrists of naval aviators and Marines. One of its most iconic appearances is in the 1943 photo series taken after the bombings over Tarawa by pilots from aircraft carriers Lexington, Princeton, and Belleau Wood, captured in Australia at Turtle Bay — also featuring pilots from VMF-214, the famed “Black Sheep Squadron” led by Greg “Pappy” Boyington.

The watch has a circular railroad-style minute track with Tritium-enhanced Arabic numerals and a small seconds subdial at six o’clock. These watches, made by the Waltham Watch Co. in the United States during America’s entry into the war, were issued to new squadrons of pilots, many of whom were eager volunteers following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Waltham 6/0-D manual movement features 17 jewels and was equipped with an anti-magnetic dust cover to protect the mechanism from interference caused by onboard flight instruments.

You’ll find many anecdotes about watches and the brands that shaped the history of watchmaking in our "Watch History" section.