The ultimate back up...
This is the first time we have offered a pocket watch on Bulang and Sons and, as you might guess, it’s something a little bit special!
This IWC was delivered to the German navy as a deck watch, meant to be the final back up in case of failure of modern safety equipment such as atomic clocks and GPS. Qualified sailors can navigate with a clock and a compass and so these watches were kept on the bridge of a naval ship and wound once per day by the officer on duty.
The watches were kept in wooden boxes, built to exacting military specifications with sliding plexi glass fronts, lined with felt with a hanging hook in the top. The box remains in excellent condition. It is very rare to see these complete watch and box sets sold on the market.
In 1966 a total of 125 pocket watches of the reference 135 with the cal. 67 were ordered, later there was a second series based on the ref. 5301 (cal. 972), of which a total of 54 were delivered by 1987. So these watches are extremely rare - and even more rarely available on the open market, as they often went as souvenirs to deserving commanders (especially when the ship was decommissioned)!!
The movement has been fully checked and regulated by our watchmaker.
Specifications:
- IWC Pocket watch
- Ref 5301
- Case measures 47 mm
- Large silver face with Arabic numerals
- Blued hands
- Cal. 972
- Dates to the 1980s
- Original military spec wooden box with plexi front
- Fully checked by our watchmaker
- One-year mechanical warranty
- Free worldwide Fedex Priority shipping