Now that truly sounds like a 'Grail' quest.
Good luck with your search, Sir!
I'm on a bit of a fool's errand, but it'd set my mind at rest about a couple of things if I could find out a little more.
My Pa flew Blenheims in WWII and, when I was a kid, gave me his black-faced JLC, telling me it was his watch when he was flying. Sadly, it's disappeared somewhere over the years. Would love to have it back, but doubt I ever will.
Does anyone have a clue which model it might have been? I seem to remember it had a subsidiary seconds dial, a black face and a stainless steel case.
Would love to know and perhaps find another.
Now that truly sounds like a 'Grail' quest.
Good luck with your search, Sir!
Black faced? JLC Mk11 possibly? Wouldn't have been issued in WWII though - 1948 onwards I believe
Thanks for the good luck - I think I'll need it.
But I think this is it:
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3182/z22011.jpg
Were these issued or did he buy it himself, I wonder?
That's a WWW, like the one Geronimo has posted, and would have been Army not RAF, so he would not have had that one whilst flying in the war.
Maybe he got it later, the WWWs were sold off as surplus at some point after the war, or maybe he had a personal watch in the same style.
Also, the JLC WWW has a plated brass case, not stainless, as far as I recall.
Last edited by RABbit; 8th August 2015 at 00:36.
I'm pretty sure there was an earlier ATP model with cathedral hands which might fit the bill. However, of more use, I was down at Headcorn the other week and got a couple of shots of the Blenheim that is recently back in the air:
Fantastic to see one flying again.
Last edited by M4tt; 8th August 2015 at 14:31.
They're certainly beautiful 'planes. I think they have just wonderful lines. Can imagine they are - if you're not worried about being shot at - delightful to fly. Think Pa spent more time chucking his about the sky as the crew pushed propaganda leaflets out over occupied Holland. The idea was they'd fly over, cut the string on the bundles of leaflets and drop them out. Apparently they were usually too terrified to bother cutting the string...
Not a sub-seconds watch, but it could have been a re-dialled 6B/159.
This is an issued (1942) JLC 6B/159 which has not been molested/re-cased by the MoD which they did in the post war years. No subdial on it.
It was my mother's cousins watch, Johnny Kent(Johnny Kentowski) He flew Hurricanes, commanding 92 Squadron at Biggin Hill and the Polish 303 Squadron at Northholt which escorted Blenheims.
Regards
Gerard
they're even better if you get the blued hands to come out ... mine isn't issued, but the movement dates from 1942..
.. even though its a small thing @ c32mm, it wears very well, and keeps very good time ..
Claudio's webpage @ http://6b159draft.blogspot.co.uk/200...lc-6b-159.html has more interesting reading - especially
on some of the redials / case variants.
cheers,
al
This one perhaps? Not stainless (coated brass) but to the casual observer it may appear to be steel..
Last edited by secretsquirrel; 21st September 2015 at 18:16.
I have a 1968 catalogue from United Technical Supplies advertising both Navigator's (larger) and Pilot's (smaller) Wristwatches from Jaeger, in black or white dial. All are centre seconds. (£15 and £9 respectively - ).
Navigators are screwback (pilot - snapback). ALl stainless, Breguet hairspring.
They were also selling Longines and Omega ones, all bought from the ministry.
I'll do a scan for you later.
Dave