IWC Schaffhausen

Congratulations, Michael to this interesting, historic timepiece.
It was in case of the Corps of Engineers not so unusual that the dial marked with the brand and the movement were different due to shortness of supplies.
I will not anticipate but I hope that our forum member JimmyR, a very model of an Englishman living in GE :-), will read your thread and can give us further informations about that topic.
As far as I know he has meanwhile all type variations of CoE's in his collection and he has done a lot of historic research due to these PWs.

Kind regards

Hajo
Fair Winds and Following Seas

Last edited: 9 January, 2013 - 09:24

Congratulations Michael! Very interesting piece!

MfG,
Roman
KM/WWW/Mk.11/666/3508/9239/322712/811/3531/5442/5448/PD etc.

Nice addition to your collection Michael, well done.
Quote Michael

You can also find these Corps of Engineers watches with movements and cases by others.

All cases were made and deliverd by Huguenin Freres & Co, le Locle, Switzerland, as can be seen by the HF stamp on the inside caseback.
They specialised in the "Niello" method of decorating silver cases in black, which made them famous world over, see here;
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/nillo-work-10-1.htm

Thanks for your exaggerated introduction to myself Hajo (I´ll get my own back on you ;-)
Yes, my collection of Corps of Engineer watches is nearly complete, with only one or two variations still missing...and yes, these movements were used by Ulysse Nardin, amongst others, like Moser, Movado to fulfill their contract with the CoE.
Zenith and Vacheron & Constantin were also contracted to deliver, but If I remember rightly, not one of the contracted Companies could deliver the full ammount of watches as per their contract.
A lot has been written in the past on these, the exhaustive article from Thomas Koenig falls in mind, written for the Okt/Nov 2010 edition of Klassik Uhren in German. Konrad Knirim has also dedicated the pages 710 and 711 in his excellent ref. book British Military Timepieces Vol II, Publisher Pomp ...
So who am I to try and top them?
As I know Thomas Koenig looks in now and again, maybe he´d like to add some first hand information, if not I´ll fill in the missing parts;-)
Untill then, I´ll just add a few pictures of mine:










Best Regards

Jimmy

Last edited: 21 December, 2012 - 23:48

Hi, this is very interesting.

At first I thought that the movement pictures were of the same movement, but then I realised where I was wrong. The number between the escapement wheel cock and the half plate is the same: 55231. The movement serial numbers are quite different. Does anyone know what that number signifies?

Thanks for sharing a beautiful watch!

Henrik

Congratulations, Michael. A nice addition to your fantastic collection. I am still sore after being out-bid for the Royal Navy Cal 52 at the Bonhams auction this week. I just hope I was out-bid by another Forum member with deeper pockets or a better appreciation of the value of the watch.

Last edited: 17 May, 2013 - 09:58

Henrik Wrote:Hi, this is very interesting.

At first I thought that the movement pictures were of the same movement, but then I realised where I was wrong. The number between the escapement wheel cock and the half plate is the same: 55231. The movement serial numbers are quite different. Does anyone know what that number signifies?

Thanks for sharing a beautiful watch!

Henrik

Henrik --thanks, and a search of our archives would answer your question. 55231 is a patent number

55231 represents IWC's patent from March 1911, which involves securing of the watch dial.

Regards, Michael
mfriedberg@iwcforum.com

Rave Wrote:Congratulations, Michael. A nice addition to your fantastic collection. I am still sore after being out-bid for the Royal Navy Cal 52 at the Bonhams auction this week. I just hope I was out-bid by another Forum member with deeper pockets or a better appreciation of the value of the watch.

Your hope did materialize. You were in fact out-bid by a memeber of this forum. I don't know about the depth of his pockets, but his appreciation for and knowledge of military watches is difficult to match.
If this is any consolation to you, that H.S.3 is in very good hands. :)

clepsydra
ad fontes...

Last edited: 22 December, 2012 - 14:48

Rave Wrote:Congratulations, Michael. A nice addition to your fantastic collection. I am still sore after being out-bid for the Royal Navy Cal 52 at the Bonhams auction this week. I just hope I was out-bid by another Forum member with deeper pockets or a better appreciation of the value of the watch.

Ralph, indeed you were out-bid by a member of this forum. It may comfort you when you know that he is British, an ex-officer of the British merchant navy,
an enthusiastic collector of military watches (British/German) which an outstanding knowledge but living on the continent and personally known to me. ;)
The IWC HS3 is put into a good harbour. :)

Best regards

Hajo
Fair Winds and Following Seas

Last edited: 9 January, 2013 - 09:24

hajoth Wrote in reply to:

Rave Wrote:Congratulations, Michael. A nice addition to your fantastic collection. I am still sore after being out-bid for the Royal Navy Cal 52 at the Bonhams auction this week. I just hope I was out-bid by another Forum member with deeper pockets or a better appreciation of the value of the watch.

Ralph, indeed you were out-bid by a member of this forum. It may comfort you when you know that he is British, an ex-officer of the British merchant navy,
an enthusiastic collector of military watches (British/German) which an outstanding knowledge but living on the continent and personally known to me. ;)
The IWC HS3 is put into a good harbour. :)

Best regards

Thank you. The watch and box was in superb condition and I am pleased it will be appreciated and looked after.

Cheers,

Ralph

Last edited: 17 May, 2013 - 09:58