Antiques Nautical Maur

Such Military Watches used German's during WWII, this is one of the specimen where a Military (Wehrmacht=Army) context is proven by the D:H engravement on the back. This is the typical design of a Wehrmacht watch of the time, i.e., black dial, roman numerals, subsecs at 6 o'clock. There is luminous material on the hour marks of the dial and in the hands. Watches like this one were given out for a military purpose, i.e., the soldier would need a good watch in his function. These were technically on the high end of contemporary watchmaking: they mostly had a so-called AS 1130 movement, certain specifications of which were given to the watch industry by the Army. This movement is almost legendary, it has been used continuously by many watchmakers even decades after WW2 was over.
 
General info on German Military Watches - WW2 era
 
Subsequent to Hitler's seizing of power in 1933, Nazi Germany in 1934 began a rearmament of its military forces which was breathtaking both in size and pace. Naturally, this meant a big demand for different kinds of watches and clocks in all parts of the military. Relative to WW1, there was a whole new range of weapons technology developed, and time measurement now played an even more crucial role in many contexts, such as in small, highly mobile units (e.g. U-Boats, Torpedo-Boats of the Kriegsmarine, commando raid units of the Wehrmacht, Bombers and fast fighters of the Luftwaffe etc.), accurate time measurement was paramount. Watches were needed for navigation in Ships and planes, for time fuses etc., and last but not least for a huge number of German soldiers: By 1944, a total of 8.8 Million men were under arms in Nazi Germany! These men needed watches, but the outbreak of WW2 had cut the major trade channels from the West. Germany therefore had to depend on its own production, but on the other hand received supplies from "neutral" countries. Obviously, in the watch context this was Switzerland. The Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine (Army, Air Force and Navy) set technical standards according to what a watch may have been specifically needed for (e.g. shockproof, waterproof etc.). But of course there was also a huge number of plain, robust watches with no specific qualities needed out there, to be used by regular soldiers. With supplies being limited throughout the war, the choice of military watches has never been limited to certain suppliers or brands. Towards the end of the war, the military even confiscated watches from private dealers for military use. Consequently, you will find a big number of German WW2 military watches from different makers, mostly Swiss and German, with varying features and movements for different purposes. Watches which were property of the armed forces and as such officially given to soldiers who "needed" one in their specific service function mostly carry an etched or punched-in service code on the back, e.g. for the Wehrmacht a serial number framed by the letters D ... H (meaning "Dienstuhr Heer"), for the Luftwaffe just a serial number beginning with a D...., or for the Kriegsmarine the letters K.M. or just M on the dial or the back of the watch. Most watches, mainly those worn by regular soldiers, who often (mostly towards the end of the war) had to buy their own, do not carry any service number. Many service numbers were even erased from the watches after the war in order to "eliminate" the military (Nazi) context for continued use in civil live. From a collector's point of view, of course watches which do have a service number are the most interesting, however also the most expensive, because there are much more out there without any official sign of military use.
 
Konrad Knirim's Choice: The Timepiece of the month April 2000:
Military Watches and Clocks of the German Forces
The watches and clocks for military purposes were specified and ordered by the Wehrmacht of the Nazi government:

• Kriegsmarine (KM, Navy)
• Deutsches Heer (D.H., Army) and by the independent
• Reichs - Luftfahrt - Ministerium (RLM, Air Force) of Herrman Goring.