Amassing a whole set of Soiled Dozen watches is one thing of a ceremony of passage for aspiring collectors, and Bonhams has two of the twelve watches lined up for its subsequent on-line and in-person public sale on February twenty first.
Soiled Dozen refers to a listing of producers commissioned by the British Ministry of Protection on the finish of World Conflict II.
The ministry insisted that each one watches meet specs akin to water resistance, shock resistance and accuracy.
All of them characteristic black dials, Arabic numerals and are night-readable for subject to the armed forces.
In the case of gathering the Soiled Dozen, it is the rarer items which are made in smaller portions and have a tendency to fetch greater costs.
Bonhams has one of many rarest Grana watches. The entire variety of Grana watches is controversial; estimates vary from 1,000 to five,000 models produced.
Jaeger-LeCoultre items are additionally tough to seek out. Solely 6,000 examples have been made earlier than being decommissioned.
What number of Soiled Dozen watches have been made?
- Boers – 11,000
- Cyma – 20,000
- Endlessly – 5,000
- Grana – Between 1,000 and 5,000
- IWC – 5,000
- JLC – 6,000
- Lemania – 10,000
- Longines – 8,000
- Omega – 25,000
- File – 25,000
- Timor – 13,000
- Vertex – 15,000
*Figures taken from Konrad Knirim’s e book “British Army Timepieces”.
Grana’s watch is usually the lacking watch in a whole set of Soiled Dozen watches, which explains Bonhams’ pre-auction estimate of £15,000 to £20,000.
The Jaeger-LeCoultre piece comes below the hammer with an estimate of £2,000-£3,000.
There are 139 tons within the Bonhams clocks and watches public sale, together with one other piece with crossover attraction for navy collectors.
A metal remark pilot’s wristwatch from A. Lange & Söhne from round 1942 with hand-winding was commissioned by the German Air Power.
It’s being auctioned with an estimate of £5,000 to £7,000.
