SEIKOSHA (now SEIKO) Type 19 Precision Pocket Watch / October 1945

— Memory of the wartime sky —

A centre-seconds pocket watch with an indirect seconds drive, inheriting the construction of the Type 100 aviation clock and built on the railway watch as its base.

Production began in October 1945, in the aftermath of the war's end.

The dial reads SEIKOSHA below twelve and PRECISION above six.

Alongside the all-numeral layout seen here, a version with baton indexes at the odd hours also exists.

A Seikosha centre-seconds pocket watch with indirect seconds drive, descended from the Type 100 aviation clock. A historic model whose production began in October 1945, immediately after the war ended. The emblematic "SEIKOSHA" and "PRECISION" markings on the dial. The dependable Type 19 movement, in 9-jewel specification, also used in navigational timekeepers. A supreme piece carrying the large crown and the operability of a military aviation instrument.

— Echoes of celestial navigation —

The movement is the Type 19, also used in navigational timekeepers.

The Type 19 exists in 7-, 9- and 15-jewel variants. Early production used 15 jewels; as the war's shadow lengthened this was cut back to 9 and then 7.

This example is the 9-jewel type.

— Passing into civilian hands —

The mechanism with its large indirect-drive crown, as used in aircraft, was highly operable and dependable. After the war's end such watches passed to civilian use or were released as surplus military stock, becoming scarce pocket watches with a military bloodline.

— Afterglow of the war's end —

Having crossed out of the shadow of war and into civilian hands, this watch is not merely an instrument for measuring time but a vessel reflecting a boundary between eras — and its beat still speaks, quietly.