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!

AHPC XV Submission #3 - First World War German Infantry

 

My third submission for AHPC XV was a group of 28mm First World War German infantry from Renegade Miniatures that I bought along with the Canadians from my last post. It consists of four sections of eight soldiers. Each section contains men armed with rifle and bayonet, fighting knives, entrenching spades, and lots of stick grenades. These sculpts are also a bit on the chunky side compared to other First World War miniatures, but I like the variety in the weapons being carried. The only real criticism I have is that I think the puttees should go higher. These only come up to mid-calf, but photos clearly show them coming up to just below the knee.  Alas, they are also now out of production.

After cleaning up the mold lines, etc. the figures were glued to 1 inch fender washers, and then sand was glued down with PVA. I primed them using a rattle can of Army Painter Uniform Grey primer. The figures were then painted using primarily Vallejo Acrylics as follows: skin - Flat Flesh; uniform - German Field Grey; boots, pouches, and helmet chin strap - German Camo Black Brown; puttees - one of Charcoal Grey, Hemp, or Parched Grass; Blanket - Stone Grey; rifle stock, grenade handle, and spade handle - Beige Brown; spade - Gunmetal; metal rifle parts - German Grey; bayonet and knife blades - Steel; mess tin and gas mask canister - Charcoal Grey; helmet - one of AK Interactive Dunkelgrau, Olivegrun 1 or Olivegrun 2.

Once all the painting was completed, the figures got my usual treatment with Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. Again, this worked very well on these figures as the detail is quite pronounced, so the quick shade flows readily into any grooves or corners.

 

 Thanks for stopping by.

 

AHPC XV Submission #2 - First World War Canadian Infantry

 

My second submission for AHPC XV was a group of 28mm First World War Canadian infantry from Renegade Miniatures that I bought at The Sentry Box on a Christmas visit to my family in Calgary at least fifteen years ago. It consists of two Vickers machine gun teams ready to lay down suppressive fire, plus four sections of six soldiers. Each section contains four men armed with rifle and bayonet, a Lewis gunner, and his No, 2, the last heavily laden with extra drum magazines. The sculpts are a bit on the chunky side compared to other First World War miniatures, but the faces have real character. They look like they were inspired by Captain Bruce Bairnsfather's cartoons of 'Old Bill' from the pages of 'Fragments from France'. Alas, they now seem to be out of production.

After cleaning up the mold lines, etc. the figures were glued to 1 inch fender washers, and then sand was glued down with PVA. I primed them using a rattle can of Army Painter Fur Brown primer. The figures were then painted using Vallejo Acrylics as follows: skin - Flat Flesh, uniform - English Uniform, boots - German Camo Black Brown, helmet chin strap and pistol holster - Flat Earth, P08 webbing - Iraqi Sand, SBR pouch and helmet cover - Tan Yellow, helmet and rain cape - Camo Olive Green, rifle stock and entrenching tool handle - Beige Brown, metal rifle parts - German Grey, bayonet - Steel, buttons, buckles, and snaps - Brass.

Once all the painting was completed, the figures got my usual treatment with Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. This worked very well on these figures as the detail is quite pronounced, so the quick shade flows readily into any grooves or corners.

 

Shock Troops of the British Empire

Vickers Machine Gun Teams

No. 1 Section

No. 2 Section

No. 3 Section

No. 4 Section

 Thanks for stopping by.

AHPC XV Submission #1 - First World War French Infantry

 

My first project for the latest painting challenge was a platoon of 34 Wargames Atlantic French Infantry of the period 1916 onward. It continues my love-hate relationship with multipart plastic miniatures. The box contains five identical sprues of seven figures each, with lots of arm and head options. In fact you get a choice of five different sets of heads. There are also additional sprues with sets of equipment and weapons to make the figures into early WW2 French infantry. On the down side is that each sprue has an officer figure, so five in total. Plus all the little pieces are very fiddly. 

I decided to assemble my platoon using the set of heads with Adrian helmets not wearing gas masks. I intended to use one of the officer figures with my WW2 French, and gave him a fancy kepi. (He will appear in a later post.) Of the remaining four officer figures, one was assembled as an officer with a pistol. I also gave him a map case left over from the Warlord Games Bolt Action Blitzkrieg German Infantry box. while the other three were converted into 'sergeants' by giving them a rifle and various pouches left over from the Warlord Games Winter Soviet Infantry box. Once everything was assembled I painted them following a useful video from Sonic Sledgehammer, with a few modifications.

 

A platoon of the 701st Infantry ready to attack 'The Anthill'

 

Platoon Headquarters

First Section

Second Section

Third Section

Officer and conversion to Sergeant

 

Thanks for stopping by.

12mm WW1 Austro-Hungarian Cavalry

Austro-Hungarian WW1 Dragoons in early-war uniforms. 12mm metal figures from Kallistra.

The early-WW1 12 project continues to rumble along the hobby desk. In this post we stay with the armed forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but move now to the cavalry! Here we have a group of Austro-Hungarian Dragoons, 12mm metal castings from Kallistra's fantastic early WW1 figure range. 

The opening months of the Great War saw some incredible uniforms in use - and by "incredible", I mean in the context of a hobby geek like me thinking "That would be fun to paint!". In this regard, one thinks often of the blue and red of the French infantry, and the glorious helmets and combs of the different branches of the French cavalry, as they swept into battle in the late summer of 1914. The terrible realities of warfare in that time soon put all of the glory of the uniforms to rest, but wow, for the purposes of a wargaming, hobbyist, it is all very fun to paint and put on the table.

Carbines and swords at the ready! Helmets painted grey...damn regulations...

So what of the Austro-Hungarian troops? By the outbreak of WW1, the infantry had moved to something of a more bland/modern-adjacent uniform of "pike grey". Some anachronistic flashes remained, but were subtle or, at least, beyond my brush for the most part when it comes to 12mm figures (for example, the Hungarian regiments still had fancy cuts and threading on their trousers). 

Carbines, ready for action in case of dismounted action...

Thankfully the cavalry arm of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces, weighed down by conservative tradition and slowed by the parsimony and administrative incompetence of the Empire, maintained some wonderful uniforms by the late summer of 1914! On paper, the cavalry of the Empire were supposed to switch to more practical uniforms, but in practice many (almost all?) regiments mobilized in 1914 with full dress uniforms which would not have looked out of place in the 1870s.

These Dragoons are great examples, resplendent in blue tunics and red pants. The only concessions made to the looming shadow of modern warfare is seen on the helmets, which were covered with cloth or just painted grey.

And speaking of dismounted action, here are the troopers sans-horses.

Kallistra's early WW1 collection is awesome - not only the sculpts themselves, which manage a great deal of character for the small size, but also because it is so complete. You can get mounted AND dismounted castings for the full variety of Austro-Hungarian cavalry options - but wait, there is more! You can ALSO get the horse-holder figures! While I haven't yet seen the need to paint the horse holders yet (just like I will be the last person to paint artillery limbers), the completeness of the offering is tremendous and very appealing. 

Closer shot of the dismounted troopers - can you spot the officer?

The cavalry of early WW1 may have aspired to mount their own glorious and decisive "death ride" style charges, but in fact had to dismount often to fight (or even, I suspect, just to survive so they could fight). "Dragoons", of course, were supposed to be mounted infantry anyway, going back to their origins in history. But by 1914 I think the Austro-Hungarian ones still harbored a significant strain of "let's charge to contact, we'll make it work" sort of thinking. Thanks to Kallistra's awesome collection, you can represent your cavalry troopers in either mode (and associated mental state), and that is what we have here. This is an advantage over Pendraken's 10mm collection, which is short on the dismounted troopers (although, it should be said, it still awesome). 

He doesn't stand out a WHOLE lot, but the officer here still has his classic metal helmet, with comb and gold plate.

I did paint the helmets of these figures grey, with the exception of the officer. It helps him stand out a little...but I also like the idea of this stubborn fellow ignoring the direction to paint/cover the helmets. Seems like the sort of thing an Austro-Hungarian cavalry officer would do...

Dismounted dragoons, ready for the firefight.

From my preliminary reading of the Eastern Front in early WW1 there was a sizable cavalry collision between the Austrians and the Russians not long after hostilities kicked off...I need to find out more about this encounter. But even though I don't have a precise plan in my mind for the type of game I want to try and stage, the idea of a crazy early cavalry clash is appealing, so watch for some of that to come during the approach Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. 

That's it for now - thanks for reading, stay tuned for more! 

12mm WW1 Austro-Hungarian Infantry

Ausro-Hungarian infantry charge into action - what could go wrong? 12mm metal figures from Kallistra.

Continuing along with my slow-moving (but still moving!) early WW1 eastern front efforts, we have a collection of 12mm Austro-Hungarian infantry. These are figures from Kallistra's delightfully complete early WW1 collection. 

An officer can be seen among this group. The collar tabs had different colours, depending on the regiment, and I tried to pick them out, just to add a splash of anachronistic color.

I enjoy painting Austrians in SO many other historical periods, so why not WW1? It also just adds to my general fascination with the setting - beyond the general awareness that the Austro-Hungarian army did not perform very well, I didn't really know any details as to why...so as I start to dig into this setting, I'm also enjoying the readying and learning that come along with it. 

View showing some of the kit on the rear of the figures.

Now, one thing that Dallas does really well on his blog posts, and that I need to follow more of, is using the post to share (and therefore have a record!) of paints used to come up with particular colours. That way, when you take a break from a project, you can return to it again and maintain some consistency in the look of the figures. The Austro-Hungarian infantry uniforms will be the first to get this treatment!

Another view of the advancing infantry...

When it comes to the uniforms worm at the opening of hostilities in 1914 by the Austro-Hungarian infantry, I was a little stumped. I mean, they are plain looking enough - the color flourishes involved for the individual regiments are pretty small, and not easily marked out on 12mm figures. They are clad in grey. Is grey hard? Sometimes, yes! At least for me. I found the grey to actually be kinda tricky.  The uniforms are described as "Pike Grey" in different sources. It is grey for sure...but also kinda blue?

Another photo of the kit on the troops.

To try and achieve this grey-that-looks-blue-but-also-blue-that-looks-grey outcome on the figures, I experimented a fair bit, before I landed on the following approach: using GW paints, I went with the following sequence - started with "Dark Reaper" as the base coat, then "Thunderhawk Blue", with final highlights of "Russ Grey". This was followed by a coat of "Gryph Charger Grey" from GW's "Contrast" paint range.

MG crew...I didn't quite line up the belt on the gun here...these fellows will have a tough time getting this into action! Seems right for the Austro-Hungarians, based on their reputation...

Because the figures are smaller, I try to over-punch the final highlight, so there is rather more "Russ Grey" involved on these smaller figures than you might try on a larger one. If there are larger ones? I believe Peter Pig has these fellows in 15mm, but I don't know if there are any 28mm Austro Hungarians out there?? 

Another view of the MG crew...were these guns yellow during the early WW1 period? I have seen some references indicating yes...but I don't have confidence in that conclusion, and have to confess that I am just going by the seat of my pants here...

As with my other 12mm WW1 figures, these are based for use with the "1914" rules from Great Escape Games. The collection of four bases would be sufficient to represent a battalion of infantry, with each base representing a company of infantry. 

We have Schwarlose (sp?) MG crews ready to support the infantry. I have seen some references to these MGs (and the Austro-Hungarian artillery, for that matter) painted in yellow...as a Hapsburg throwback? I don't actually know what colour the weapons were painted...but I went with the yellow for now. 

It's great to have some Austro-Hungarian infantry out the door. And while these troops did not have much in the way of archaic flair, the cavalry of the Empire in 1914 did not disappoint...watch this space for more on that soon!

That's all for now - thanks for reading, and stay tuned for further development on this project through the fall and into the winter!