These w10 Smiths watches were issued to the British Army in the late 60’s. Model reference 6645-99-961-4045 or GS4701.
HOW DO WE DATE THIS WATCH?
From the serial number on the case back we can accurately date this watch to being issued in 1969.
CONDITION
The w10 story goes back to 1944, when a standard was set for military watches for the British forces. These W.W.W. watches (Watch, Wrist, Waterproof) became known as the Dirty Dozen, as 12 manufacturers won contracts to make the watches and some very wealthy people set out to collect all 12. Post WW2 Britain was still involved in many conflicts, and while the WWW watches still continued to serve well the Army needed more watches. Omega provided many in 1953, Smiths Deluxe around 1955 and then in 1966/7 Smiths in Cheltenham won the contract. Both the 53 Omega and the Smiths W10 have a central sections hand over the WWW sub seconds, but the rest of the details remain the same – black dial, minute track, hacking, waterproof case with fixed bars and lume on the hands and hours. The WWW watches used radium, as did the Omega at first (until they set off Geiger counters on submarines!), but the Smiths always used Tritium – hence the circled T on the dial. These watches saw service in Northern Ireland, the Falklands and even up to the first Gulf War.
On this example the lume on the hands has been repainted with SuperLumaNova. While this is not original, it does mean the hands are now easier to read in both day and night. The seconds hand is very slightly bent too. Military watches tend to have lived a life, so knocks and bumps are to be expected. The dial has various small marks, and the case has scratches in dings – the worst being on the top right lug. However the movement is working well, and has retained the dust cover that is so often lost. The NATO style strap is new, and could be swapped for a different colour if preferred.
The Smiths W10 is worth about half what a tritium Omega W10 is worth, and about a quarter of what the rarer radium Omega is worth, making them still good value.
This watch will be supplied with our branded presentation box and our Certificate of Authenticity.
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SIZE
Width with crown 38.0 mm
Width without crown 35.2 mm
Between lugs 17 mm
Lug to lug length 46.8 mm
Case Thickness 10.9 mm
All sizes are approximate.
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