ELGIN US Military 24-Hour Day & Night Watch cal.555 / Star Watch Case

A 24-hour dial.

Where an ordinary watch makes one revolution in twelve hours, this one has an hour hand that turns once in 24 — a military specification.

The dial is divided into white and black for day and night, allowing quick, intuitive reading of time under extreme conditions.

That visual design exists to keep confusion during a mission to a minimum.

On a battlefield, even time was a strategic weapon.

Cal. ELGIN 555.

The movement is Elgin's Cal.555.

Documentation is limited, but you can feel design thinking shared with other military calibres of the period.

Durability, serviceability, accuracy.

A specification that meets military standards: a mechanism made not to be recorded but to be used.

A case by the Star Watch Case Company.

The case was made by the Star Watch Case Company, a distinguished name in military watches.

It has a record of supplying metal cases to leading makers such as Elgin and Hamilton, and its robust construction and fine markings remain on this watch.

The caseback is struck "STAR WATCH CASE CO," speaking for the division of labour between makers and for a military specification's history.

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