Postwar Watch Proliferation and Confusion
When discussing American pilot watches, the period between WW II and today is a fastmoving jungle of a variety of watches that eventually lead to none at all. Be prepared for a bunch of different watch specifications and models. Just after WW II and blending into the early ’50s was a period in which many of the A-11s that were produced during the war were run back through the Ordnance Department (renamed the Ordnance Corps in 1950), some of them so marked on the back of their cases. At that time, parts and cases were mixed and modified, making it sometimes difficult to identify which watch was which. With the emergence of the Korean conflict, however, a new specification, MIL-W-6433, was released; the resulting watch was the A-17. It, too, was to be a navigation timepiece to replace the older A-11. It had radium numbers, fiveminute indices, hour and minute hands, and a sweep second hand that glowed in the dark. To aid in reading a 24-hour clock, the numbers 13–24 were added in an inner track. The specification was then slightly upgraded to MIL-W-6433A and the A-17A was born, with the most noticeable difference being matte-finished/parkerized case. The A-17A watches were produced by both Bulova and Waltham. Then, as the ’60s rolled around, a nearly identical watch was specified: the MIL-W-3818, followed by the MIL-W-3818B. These were the watches of Vietnam and very nearly the last standard-
issue aviator watches to be ordered by the U.S. government. In 1968, the MIL-W-46374 specification began a general de-emphasis on high quality that ran through the last revision, the MIL-W-46374G, in 1999, which was a “Performance Standard.” No design specifications were included, other than it had to work in certain situations. Some versions were cased in plastic and most were considered nonrepairable (i.e., disposable). There is no standard today that says military personnel will be issued watches. In fact, only one company (Marathon) is designated as a supplier of watches for pilots. Due to budget restrictions, pilots, for the most part, must buy their own watches, with the Casio G-Shock series being the most common choice. With pilots making their own choice and spending their own money, everything from Rolex to Timex will be seen on the ramp or flight deck. Freed of regulations, pilots can dip into the huge reservoir of new aviation watches being sold worldwide.