Horological Meandering

all of us who collect vintage watches have, so I empathise.

As Nico says, you just need to invest a little time in finding out the information, those of us who do collect vintage watches
enjoy that element of it as well and when you find a hidden gem and uncover a new element of the story, that really
sets the pulse racing.

There are many more books and websites out there (especially the Purists) who have expanded what we know in the last ten years,
and I'm grateful to those people who are happy to share their knowledge.

We have plenty number of experts and/or access to documentation.

Two recent cases show me that the fake makers are moving to brands that those conditions are not that simple to fulfill.

And this old "military" Lemania is another example (bad).

Cheers,

Nilo

I've re-read this and want to correct a point. While the NATO stock number is used by a number of countries, the prefix 0552 to the best of my information
is unique to the UK armed forces and specifically the Royal Navy.

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Easily faked.

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There's a lot of work and information in there. Many thanks for compiling it.

The first watch I was given (back in the 70's) was a Lemania Chrono - 'much too good for a schoolboy' was one watchmakers opinion. I'm ashamed to say I didn't treat it well but later I sent it to Switzerland to be repaired in the early 90's which is where it got the non standard hands, I remember the originals were luminous and quite thick.

In this way, our Lemania Master, Ubik, can examine your watch and share with us more information.

Cheers,

Nilo

Glad to - are there any precautions about revealing the whole number? or is that only when the provenance is not proved? (I doubt anyone was making dodgy Lemanias in the early 70's ;-)

Showng the case back. 

Refurbished in 1990 or 91 by Ollech & Wajs who put on the replacement hands

About your watch.

Thank you,

Nilo

I can give you a bit more information on this watch. To military collectors it's mostly known by it's initial designation HS9.

A little searching on the Broadarrow website will give you lots of examples.

Starting with the back, HS stands for Hydrographic Survey, which was the branch of the military who were in charge of charting the world's oceans. They produced a series of designations -- HS1 through to HS11 -- which were mostly deck watches and pocket watches for use in the Navy. This one was probably used by the Royal Navy's fleet air arm and dates sometime to the late forties.

It's a testament to these Lemanias that they were kept in service for a long time, when the military switched their coding system to the NATO system, they struck out the original designation and added the NATO number which is 0552/924 3305 number. These are sometimes referred to as double issue Lemanias. These were the only wristwatch chronographs that the British military used from the Forties until the end of the Sixties, when the two button chrono's became the standard.

The 1959 does not refer to the date, but is the unique issue number of the watch.

These early dials would have used Radium, this was taken off the watch sometime in the Fifties and the dial was redialled by the MOD and the circle P has been added, which according to Donald Woo's great article in the book British Military Timepieces stood for a Phosphorous luminous compound. Later on you see a lot of military dials with the more common circle T for Tritium as well.

The movement should be the Lemania 15CHT.

The hands, as you say are incorrect. You should be able to get a correct set of hands if you look on ebay. They should look like the one posted by G99 many years ago.

Congrats and enjoy. Now should you ever come across the HS10 divers watch, please drop me a line








(Credit - Vintage Rolex Forum)

Ubik,

You are the master of military watches.

As usual, I saved your post for future reference.

Thank you again for another great help.

Cheers,

Nilo

These are still a very affordable and collectable vintage watch.

there is also a good reference book called 'military timepieces' by Ziggy Wesolowski which lists all the HS numbers and their designation.
for example and HS1 is a marine chronometer, HS2 marine deck watch. HS8 and 9 are fleet air arm pilots watches as Ubik quite rightly said.
the HS lemanias usually had white dials whereas the RAF versions had black dials.
i was lucky enough to have one of each until the big sell off.
i have a soft spot for the fleet air arm pieces as my Dad did his national service as an aircraft mechanic in the Fleet Air Arm.

bezt
Graham

With you and Ubik, we Purists are 100% covered.

Cheers,

Nilo

I have seen on some sites that the letter P stands for 'Promethium' (used before Tritium) as a schoolboy I announced to my friends it stood for 'Pilot"...

if you pm me i can give you details of an excellent watch service engineer that i use a lot and is cheap.
he loves vintage stuff and wont over polish anything.
best
Graham

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The article I mentioned says that it does not stand for Promethium, as later circle P's do. As this would be too early for that to be used instead
of Radium. The circl P and T were used by the military so that they knew that the dial was free of Radium.

You're not wrong though, this is a pilots watch.

I think you may be right about the silk escapers background. I'd love to see any others you have and if you know the history of them that would be great.

Ubik, 

all done Fop.
if you havent got it get back to me.

regards
Graham

I've taken the plunge and sent my Lemania HS9 off to Graham's watch maker friend to see about getting it refurbished  

go for a shell cordovan nato. best leather in the world, superbly made straps. just pm me for source.
i use them on speedmasters, Zenton bronze, Lum-Tecs, Sm300's. you name it, if its sporty then shell cordovan is your best bet.

best
Graham

With the leather Nato's you need to make sure they are thin enough to go through the fixed bars.
Otherwise you can get an open ended strap that will work.

Since taking my old Lemania HS9 into daylight again (pictured above). This message has been edited by fop on 2014-01-12 09:54:38