Fake Military Watches?

Penfold · April 14, 2020

On 8/31/2019 at 8:47 PM, HSL said:

If you look in the book "German Military Timepieces of World War II Volume 3 German Army/Waffen-SS" by Ulric of England and
on Page 33 you can see how a genuine should look like, Helvetia made a similar watch before like in the early 30's and after the war so they became popular to sell from countries like Ukraine where they just popped in a Helvetia caliber 82A or similar in a fake case.

Germans are known for their efficiency and during a raging war they wouldn´t care to engrave the movement with the amount of jewels and so on the barrels and thats why the most confirmed genuine are just blank inside with just 82A stamped on the side; while one from the 30's would have some text and even some serial numbers on the train bridge. All the casebacks in the book has the 3190 engraved in them and so do the fakes, but the most genuine has a CB mark stamped on the inside.

The things to be aware of here is the serial number on the trainbridge, looks like a 6-9 number serial, what you would expect on a pre war (81-24) movement.
The movement mostly provided during the WW2 was the 82A-24. On this specimen you also can see the text General Watch Co , Helvetia's parent company on the movement which I think never occures on the real deal.

The D 15004 H looks a bit familiar to a case I bought from the bay in 2017 just for reseach purposes, think the serial was D 15009 H or something like that.
But who knows progress in identifying these gems might have progressed but I wold want to see the inside of the back and a better closeup of the movement before buying it.

Hello all,

I know this is an old thread but just in case someone stumbles across it while trying to authenticate a DH Helvetia watch I thought I'd update it quickly.

I have studies Helvetia DH watches extensively and I agree that the movement is an earlier one, probably from the early 1930s, as you say the DH movements are normally plain, often only marked Helvetia.

The dial, hands, case and numbering are all correct however, I have one exactly the same, there were a few variations of Helvetia DH watches.

Have a look at my page here for more info:

https://www.helvetiahistory.co.uk/german-military-dh-watches

Thanks.

Carl

Penfold · April 14, 2020

On 9/1/2019 at 9:19 AM, HSL said:

Just as a fun fact in the same theme, there was a bunch of cases roaming around for a while. I'm sure they are contemorary WW2 stuff but probably never used. I've seen these NOS cases with Helvetia 800C movements in them.
I guess they seem to be more accepted these days but is it a genuine WW2 watch? Can one just pop in a movement in them and say they just made a restauration, after all the cases doesn't meet any specs setup as a military watch. Maybe they needed a coctail watch for nicer receptions?