Air of accuracy

Rare World War Two survivor seeks new owner - and there's a heroic tale behind it

ONE OF THE FEW nor-toxic by-products of warfare is technological advance. Before the 1914-18 war, battles often began when everyone arrived, not to a fixed timetable. It was hardly surprising. For a start, it’s quite a challenge to organise an advance at 09:00 sharp when your watch measures accuracy to a few minutes rather than to the second. Only when artillery and infantry needed to work in coordination did the difference between ten past and ten-to the hour suddenly mean being late in a very literal sense.

The Second World War saw time becoming even more important as warfare became more mechanised and particularly aerial warfare grew in significance. For the first time, government departments laid down the specifications for general and widely issued timepieces. In 1935, the German Reichs-Luftfahrtministerium Ministry of Aviation) detailed the B-Uhr Beobachtungsuhr), an airman’s observation watch. Intended for navigation and mission-planning, they were designed to be produced in numbers, robust, easily read and accurate.