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I’ve made it no secret that I love field watches, so it only makes sense to dive into the history of the “Dirty Dozen”. This is the name given to the original 12 military field watches issued during World War 2. These somewhat sterile-dialed, no-nonsense military watches were the first modern field watches, and without them, modern classics like my Hamilton Khaki Field might not exist.
The history behind these watches is already extensively covered, so I’d like to focus on the twelve brands that produced them. This will be a three part series, and part 1 will kick it off with Buren, Cyma, Eterna, and Grana.
This series will showcase vintage post-war ads that are from the immediate post-war era (as in after the end of WW2). A time when things started to settle down and “get back to normal” if you will.
Buren Advertisement From 1950
The 1950s was an innovative time for Buren, which filed a patent for its micro-rotor movement in 1954. This innovation, which allowed the rotor to be integrated at the same level with the rest of the movement, allowed for very thin automatic watches. It wasn’t until 1957 that its first micro-rotor movement went into production, however. Through a series of refinements, the “Intramatic” movement was born. This was the base movement that would inevitably be modified into one of the first automatic chronographs.
Hamilton purchased Buren in 1966, and created the “Chronomatic” automatic chronograph movement in 1969. It accomplished this through a joint venture that included Breitling-Leonidas and Dubois-Depraz. The movement utilized a Dubois-Depraz chronograph module (8510), which was attached to the backside of the Buren movement. The Hamilton/Buren partnership officially ended in 1972, and the factory was liquidated.
Cyma Advertisement From 1948
Another founding member of the Dirty Dozen was Cyma, which introduced its first automatic wristwatch in 1943. It continued to produce automatic wristwatches, including many alarm watches and chronometers, throughout the 1950s. Surprisingly, it actually claimed to be one of the largest producers of watches in its heyday (it expanded rapidly in the 1920s and 1930s leading up to WW2).
The brand started using ETA movements as soon as 1957, and its decline as a brand came quickly by the 1960s. Production ceased in 1966, and the rights to its name were acquired by ASUAG’s Chronos Holding, which then restarted production in 1968 under its Synchron group. Synchron was created in 1968 to manage a portfolio of brands that included not just Cyma, but also Doxa and Ernest Borel. After the Quartz Crisis hit and Cyma went bankrupt, it was sold again in 1978.
Eterna Advertisement From 1945
I’m on the fence with calling this ad “post-war” since it could go either way (WW2 ended September 2, 1945), but I think it’s a cool ad nonetheless. In case you didn’t know, Eterna actually founded ETA (now the movement-making arm of the Swatch Group). The ASUAG group acquired both Eterna and ETA in 1932. Eterna’s history is filled with innovation, and it’s contributed much more to watchmaking than simply providing one of the original Dirty Dozen watches.
Roughly three years after the above ad was released, Eterna introduced the ball-bearing assisted rotational movement, which it released in 1948 with the Eterna-matic automatic movement. Utilizing five strategically placed ball bearings, it made the movement more efficient, while also reducing wear and tear. The five dots in Eterna’s current logo pay homage to these five ball bearings, and its pioneering technology is still being used in automatic movements today.
Grana Advertisement From 1947
Last on our list for part 1 is Grana. It was founded in 1888 in Grenchen, Switzerland. Grana is short for Granacus, or Grenchen in Latin. It officially changed its name to Certina in 1949, roughly two years after the below ad was released.
Interestingly enough, Grana’s version is the rarest of the Dirty Dozen field watches. Grana provided an estimated 1000-5000 watches produced for the Ministry of Defense and to its specifications. As previously mentioned, the name Certina was officially adopted in 1949 as the sole brand name, but it was actually registered a decade before in 1939. So while the watches were actually produced in the Certina factory, the name Grana made it onto the dial. If the watches were produced just a few years later, then they likely would’ve read “Certina” instead. Today, Certina is owned by the Swatch Group.
Part 2 will cover Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lemania, Longines, and IWC.
Know more about Buren, Cyma, Eterna, or Grana and want to add to the discussion? Please post a comment below!