[city-dweller]

please no "SS" in any of the variants on the dial or case!

edit: no "US" either

 

[city-dweller]

how about something absolutely non-military/navy?

for example, like this one (the images are borrowed from the internets):

 

[city-dweller]

Re: Marine B-Uhr Theme

As you can see, I whipped together a few theme packs to maybe help move this discussion along as see what everyone is gravitating toward.

I also came up with this idea: A Marine B-Uhr.

I found that Laco cases were also used by the Kriegsmarine for B-Uhr use (see photo of actual Laco case). Then I thought, typically Marine clocks, watches and timers have white faces (lumed in later years), so why not take the Laco B-Uhr dial and reverse it completely to create a Marine version? What was white is now black, and the dial itself is now white. Imagine black lume on a white dial - that would be really interesting. To help try and illustrate my point I quickly mocked-up a Marine B-Uhr. Never mind the quality of the image - it took me all of thirty seconds to do - the point is does this idea interest anyone at all?

Actually, a very nice twist!
I like the idea.
What if only the dial is reverted, while the hands stay as they are?

 

[city-dweller]

Re: 2011 Laco Special Edition Project - GENERAL DISCUSSION

To be more historically relevant, I would personally prefer either a sterile dial, or just "Laco", without any additional prefixes

 

[city-dweller]

Today finally I found some time to have a look into my copy of the Knirim book.

Here it is what I found there:

1. First of all, in the whole thick brick of a book, Laco is mentioned just two (2) times --
and both occasions are related to the B-Uhr.
Quite disappointing, right?
Especially when you compare the number of mentionings
of Lange (33), Wempe (15), IWC (10), and Stowa (7).

2. Some info regarding the W-SS whatch:
-- the "M-B" mark on the dial shoud indeed be interpreted as "Messbatterie".
In fact, the watch is described as
"Beobachtungsuhr fuer Messbatterie mit Anhaltevorrichtung fuer die Unruh"
-- Supposedy it was produced by Wempe and Laco for the missile test facility at Peenemuende
(where at that time Sturmbannführer SS Werner von Braun was developing
the missiles known as V-1 and V-2).
-- Interestingly, the watch has the specification number (Anforderungs Nr.) Fl. 23883
identical to that of the B-Uhr of the Luftwaffe.

Other interesting features include:
- giant size of 65 mm
- 1/5 second marks on the dial
- mirrored numerals for minutes

[edit: typo corrected]

 

[city-dweller]

[continued from my previous post]

3. It was interesting to find out that an interpretation of this W-SS watch
has been already made by Aristo, who placed their advertisement at the end of the Knirim book
with a reference to a particular page of the book where this watch is presented.

Hence the question:
Do we want to repeat Aristo????

 

[city-dweller]

With that article, it means it was NOT primary Artillery watch, assuming mr Knirim knows what he is talking about.

But it is still a time keeping watch. Strange, as a `standard stop watch (maybe with mirrored numbers for photo purposes) would be much easier to read?

apparently, it was an attempt at a better readable very special purpose tool watch: huge size and different arrangement of numerals.

 

[city-dweller]

one more photo from the Knirim book:

 

[city-dweller]

a few reamrks regarding the design based on the W-SS watch layout:

one could think about simplifying the dial layout in the following way:
1) remove the writings on the dial;
2) remove the mirrored numerals;
3) remove the 1/5 s markings

this would considerably unload the dial and make it much more readable
(which is important, since we are not going to make a watch in the original size of 65 mm)

 

[city-dweller]

the last one is described by Knirim as belonging to a batch which was shipped to the Artillery School in Glau (this is in Brandenburg, not far from Berlin)

one of the important requirements (apart from the mirrored numerals) was a luminous second hand jumping every 1/5 s --
hence apparently the huge size, otherwise it would be difficult to resolve that small time intervals.
and, according to the order, it had to have a wrist strap.
(details are given in the description visible on the last photo)

difficult to imagine how one could wear such a beast and not bump it into something around...

 

[city-dweller]

Re: Torpedo Theme

Here is the image with a higher resolution (Knirim, p.252)
(can make at higher resolution, if required).

According to Knirim's description, this is not a torpedo timer,
but rather an anti-submarine depth charge timer.
It was made by Junghans using cal. 29c.
The dial has a 1/100 min scale and three concentric scales
for distance determination plus one additional small subdial.
Further details on its use are seemingly unknown.

(There existed an identical design with a white dial,
but all scales and numbers printed in black (Knirim, p. 253) --
sorry, I didn't take a photo of it.)

Personally I cannot see how this beautiful device
can be transformed into a sensible writst watch...

 

[city-dweller]

Here is, in my opinion, an interesting design (Knirim, p. 222)
which can be rather easily converted to the special project watch
by removing the subdials:

This is a Navy B-Uhr made by Lange (cal. 48.1).
The subdials are power reserve and small seconds.
An interesting feature which I didn't see anywhere else,
is the the presence of two -- large and small -- second hands.
The large one was apparently to make timing easier.
(Unfortunately, no further details are given by Knirim.)

 

[city-dweller]

Re: Torpedo Theme

There is another stopwatch design in Knirims book, I think I have a small pic early in this thread.

Any chance of a better pic?

can make it, but no earlier than in a few hours.

 

[city-dweller]

Re: Torpedo Theme

There is another stopwatch design in Knirims book, I think I have a small pic early in this thread.

Any chance of a better pic?

here you are, Janne!

The one you mentioned is a Junghans cal. 68
with a navy aritllery dial (Knirim, p. 254):

Another similar Junghans cal. 68 with a navy artillery dial (Knirim, p. 254):

For diversity, here is a Hanhart stopwatch,
also with a navy artillery dial (Knirim, p. 258):

 

[city-dweller]

although the discussion shifted lately to stop watch-inspired designs,
I still wanted to have a look how a W-SS design would look
if modified according to the ideas I mentioned in my post one day ago.

here is a quick & dirty attempt to visualize what can be made
taking the W-SS design as a base:

1) sterile dial (writings removed)
2) dial is made more readable for a reasonably sized watch
by removing the mirrored numerals

I think it looks quite nice this way.

opinions?

 

[city-dweller]

Re: Voting

thanks for your efforts, Uwe.

the list looks very reasonable.

 

[city-dweller]

It looks a little bit empty, because the original had some (lumenous?) pips inside the minute numerals.

The pips could be used as the hour markers...

yes, these pips are indeed luminescent markers.

(the hand is obviously filled with the same luminescent material.)