Glashütte Original

stromer
2381

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You are right

Hi MTF,

this is indeed an extremely interesting watch.

As far as I could find out, 22 of these watches were supplied in 1943 by A.Lange to the Waffen-SS, a special forces unit known in first place for their cruelty and inhumanity but also for weapon development. These watches are 65mm in diameter as opposed to the 55mm of the "normal" B-Watches.

It seems they were used by a "Messbatterie" (I cannot translate that term, but it describes a military unit designated to do the measurements and calculations required to guide the fire of a artillery battery) in Peenemünde during the development of the V-Missiles in WWII. The "M-B" on the dial is the short form of "Messbatterie".

These watches seem to have been used together with a device called a mirror sextant for tracking the flight paths of the V-missiles during testing. Obviously exact time, that could only be read though a mirror while using the device, was necessary to read this mirror sextant. Maybe crabman could help me with some details here?

Another special thing about this watch is that that is  features 1/5 second markings are made of luminous paint. This was necessary for the intended use of the watch and is  at the same time reason why the dial diameter was increased to 65mm.

And there is even one more interesting point about the sample of the watch exposed at the museum: The marking in the center of the upper half of the dial is almost unreadable while the rest of the dial is ok. We might safely assume that the marking was deliberately removed - maybe even by the museum - because it read "W-SS" and showed the logo of the Waffen SS. Today in Germany it is prohibited to publicly display this logo. This also applies  to many other symbols of the nazi regime.

Best regards and read you,
Martin

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