Some Military Horology!

From time to time (heh) on this blog I digress into different subjects unrelated (or only tangentially related) to wargaming. One of my many non-wargaming hobbies is horology... the study (and in my case, collecting) of watches. Combining this interest with another of my interests obsessions, military history, makes for an fascinating intersection.

This is a lovely piece isn't it! It's a Heuer "Bundeswehr" 1550 SG flyback chronograph. These were issued to the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) in the Cold War - particularly in the 1960s and 70s.

The case is stainless steel of course, you can see the four fixing screws right next to the lugs. The Bundeswehr item number is stamped on the caseback, note that this isn't the serial number... that is stamped on the side of the case between the lugs.

On the other side of the case is the manufacturer's model designation - 1550 SG.

The watch came from the seller on a very nice grey leather strap but I immediately ordered an NOS Bundeswehr strap from Jurgen's in Germany.

The strap design is now commonly known as "Bundeswehr" due to its association with this watch. It's a three-piece leather item - a two-piece buckled 20mm strap attaching to the watch between the lugs as usual, and the third piece being a flat oval leather pad fitting underneath the watch case. Supposedly this is due to the watch being used by pilots in the Bundesluftwaffe (air force) where the temperatures in the cockpit could vary from freezing to very hot, and the leather pad was supposed to insulate the pilot's wrist from the hot or cold stainless caseback.

  

Accession number stamped on the strap as well.

Here's a better view of the full strap.

I really like the dial design of this watch. The bezel rotates of course, to keep track of elapsed time. The subdial at the left runs the seconds, the subdial at right keeps track of chrono elapsed time up to 30 minutes, and the chronograph second hand (seen at one o'clock here) is started and stopped by the top pusher, while the bottom pusher resets the chrono second hand from being stopped. HOWEVER... if you push the bottom button while the chronograph is running, the chrono second hand flies back to 12 and restarts automatically. Hence "flyback".

The "3H" in circle is typical of the Bundeswehr issued watches, it signifies that the markers and hands are coated in tritium, which glows in the dark ("3H" is the chemical symbol for tritium, 3 is the mass number and H is for hydrogen of course). Just so there's no mistaking this there is also a tiny "T" over the 6.

Of course there's prominent "Heuer" branding here as this watch predates the 1985 acquisition of the company by the TAG Group, the watches thereafter being branded TAG Heuer.

The Bundeswehr strap makes the watch wear even larger than it is and my wrist isn't huge, so I've been wearing the watch on a one-piece nylon NATO strap.

I was really happy to pick up this watch as I've wanted a Heuer Bundeswehr flyback chrono for years, it was one of my grail watches. They're not that rare but there is a really weird variation of the piece called the "Sternzeit Reguliert" (regulated star-time) that was used by the artillery and was set to "sidereal time" (based on earth's motion relative to distant stars rather than the Sun). A sidereal day is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds. Try that as your excuse next time you're a few minutes late for a meeting ;-)

I find this stuff fascinating, but if you want a deep dive into the Heuer Bundeswehr watch you can have a look at this site.

Next up is the watch I wear when doing Great War living history. It's a "Queen Anne" hand-winder from West End Watch Company. This is also a fully original piece.

The strap is great, it's from vintagewatchstraps.com and this guy is a real artisan. I sprung for the hallmarked sterling silver buckle and it is just lovely.

Some honest wear on the dial here but the watch winds well and keeps reasonable time at events. The Great War was the real origin of the men's wristwatch and the start of a fashion that survives to this day. Strangely enough, for a time after the war, some veterans resented civilian non-veterans wearing wristwatches - stolen valour! Pretty wild stuff.

Moving forward about 25 years, here's a Swiss watch issued to the German army in the Second World War. The Germans made use of a lot of Swiss watches for their armed forces, including this example by ARSA (A. Reymond SA). It's a handwinder too, as all of these watches are, and is marked "Watertight", "Shock-resistant", and "Anti-magnetic" on the face. All of these properties are important in a military watch, as magnetic fields can affect the running of the watch.

What marks this watch as military issue is the stamp on the case - "DH" stands for Deutsches Heer, the German army. The serial number is stamped between the letters.

Here's a pocket watch from the same maker. My wife got this for me as a wedding present. 

Also "DH" marked, naturally. Nice watch but not many people wear pocket watches anymore do they!
 

Lastly here's a cool RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) service watch by Waltham. Like the ARSA wristwatch it's pretty petit by today's standards but it's in very nice condition with what I believe is an original nylon strap.

Military accession number on this one as well (I think the /42 indicates wartime issue) but it's the paperwork that came with it that's really remarkable...

Check this out, original Air Force paperwork! "Requires overhaul"

Here's the evidence it was overhauled... in 1965! Who says the military is wasteful... this watch may have been in service for over 20 years.

Tested and accurate to within 30sec/day... it's no quartz watch or iPhone but not bad for an old hand-winder - keep in mind that the "COSC standard" for accuracy of mechanical watches established by the Controle Officielle Suisse des Chronometres is -4s/+6s per day. I only have one chronometer in my collection (a Tissot Janeiro chronograph) so I'm not super-fussed. These watches are of interest for their intricate mechanical function and aesthetic appeal, not their super-accurate timekeeping.  

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this digression and if you are worried about spending money on awesome watches, you should really stay far away from chrono24.ca!

Elfin Knights Project Takagi Blade Runner Blaster

Okay, so this post is only tenuously related to the usual wargames content on this blog, but it has to do with painting at least...

So, assuming you're still tuned in, I'd like to introduce a small project - a repaint of the world's most awesome water pistol - Deckard's blaster from the original Blade Runner!

The story of the BR blaster has been told many places - the original prop was an unholy union between a Charter Arms .44 cal. Bulldog revolver and a Steyr-Mannlicher .22 cal rifle with some extra greeblies and LED lights sprinkled to taste. Long thought lost, the original prop resurfaced in 2006 at a fan convention called WorldCon. In the meantime, several prop makers had turned their skills to producing more-or-less accurate replicas of the blaster based on screen caps from the movie. However, the emergence of the "WorldCon Blaster" in detailed photos has lead to more definitive replicas being produced, one of the most popular being made in Japan by Tomenosuke and retailing for nearly $1,000.

photo: eBay

I'd always wanted to have a BR blaster of my own but $1K is just too much. Enter the Takagi "Elfin Knights Project" M2019 water blaster! Injection molded in translucent black and amber plastic, it's an amazingly faithful replica of the film blaster, at a knockdown price.

However faithful it looks, though, a plastic water gun is never going to have the have the heft of a full metal (or even resin) prop. I fixed this by plugging the holes in the molding and filling it brimful with clean sand - weight is now over 800 grams or almost two pounds. I then masked off the grips and primed the piece with satin black spraypaint.

After priming, I painted the upper receiver and triggerguard with a mixture of GW Leadbelcher and craft black acrylic, and the buttplate with a straight Leadbelcher. The rest was carefully weathered, mostly with a sponge technique using Leadbelcher, concentrating on the parts that would contact the holster or hand of the user. I also did some fine edge highlighting and light chipping on the metal parts using GW Ironbreaker and a fine brush.

I glued two metal BBs on each side of the piece to represent the red LEDs and painted them Khorne Red highlighted with Evil Sunz Scarlet. The molded in LED underneath the gun was painted similarly. The LEDs on the cylinder rod were painted GW Caliban Green highlighted with Privateer Necrotite Green. All LEDs were finished with a gloss coat.

"Made in China" apes the WorldCon Blaster's "Made in Austria" gravure. Serial number matches the real prop

Lastly, I had my friend Byron of Northern Lights build me a fantastic clear acrylic stand for the prop. This will look pretty cool in my collecting room - although after having painted this one, I'm thinking of buying a resin kit to do up with working LEDs... crazy? who knows.

That's it for now, and all there is left to say is "have a better one!" :-)