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Grifone66
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WWII Agassiz Watch Co. Navigator’s timepiece in original carrying case ---> da www.ukwatches.com/milwatches.htm
This is a very unusual watch from the Second World War, the GCT models from Hamilton, Elgin & Waltham are quite well known but the Agassiz is much more rare.
(Diameter 53mm; Height 15mm. The container is 100mm diameter and 57mm high.)
GCT (Greenwich Civil Time) watches were used by navigators in the US Army Air Corps to perform the calculations needed to locate your position by “dead reckoning”. In order to do this they had to be highly accurate and the watches made by the 3 US based companies mentioned above are all recognized as some of the finest watches each of the companies ever made. What is not so well known is that so many of these watches were required, the USAAC also ordered them from the US branches of some of the best Swiss watch firms. The only two I am currently aware of are Longines & Agassiz.
In order for these watches to perform their desired function they had to be protected against both vibration (quite considerable in the piston engined bombers in which they were used) and magnetic fields (again considerable as the plane would have magnetos, radio sets and, later in the war, radar). This is why the watches were issued in the special container, where they were held in the middle of the container by 4 helical springs; the container itself provided antimagnetic protection & the springs provided the shock protection.
The dial is the classic GCT style with an inner 24 hour dial & an outer minute/seconds track there is a 24hr up/down indicator at the top. The hands are blued steel and most unusually the dial is silvered, rather than the more common black.
The movement is absolutely stunning with a most unusual bridges/plate layout (it reminds me of the work of Albert Potter), it has 21 jewels, a “snail shell” precision regulator, indirect seconds and is numbered 226868.
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Agassiz by Louis Cottier dal "World Time ai WWII... |
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