Officially this Chronometre Royal deck watch came to life in 1940 and was sold that same year, according to VC archives, to the Royal Navy as a movement only, without case.  In fact it had a case, just not the usual silver one but a rudimentary brass holder with glass back designed to drop neatly into the bowl of a chronometer transit box.

The real story of this watch began on January 15, 1942, when the Royal Navy's Chronometer Watch register recorded its first assignment to "Singapore".

At this time the British were under siege at Singapore and the Royal Navy's base at Sembawang was soon to fall to the Japanese in a matter of weeks.  As Winston Churchill remarked after the war, it was the largest capitulation in British history.

It would be very interesting to know what role this watch may have played, if any, in the naval evacuation but somehow it survived for the register next documents its assignment to HMS Adamant.  This ship, a large submarine tender responsible for a fleet of nine T-class submarines, was then stationed at Kilindini naval base in Kenya, where the RN's Eastern Fleet had withdrawn after Singapore.  Here are few photos from the Imperial War Museum collection (non-commercial copyright granted) taken from the Adamant while on convoy duty in March, 1942.

After service of nearly four years (rather long from my experience with other RN navigation watches) the watch was returned to storage at Plymouth in 1947.  A most interesting notation, "ex Truncheon" was made in the register at that time.  HM Submarine Truncheon was one of the boats under Adamant's care so I assume the watch also saw service on Truncheon.  Being one of the last series of the T-class and the most modern, Truncheon remained operational long after the war, eventually being converted to a Super-T, then sold to the Israeli Navy.  It was finally scrapped in 1977.  These IWM photos show Truncheon before and after conversion, hard to believe they are the same.

I am so pleased this watch survived.  Anticipating that many homage and tribute models will come from SIHH, it is just as important to honour the real veterans.

Cheers,

Tick Talk