THE ESSENTIALS

MAKE: LEMANIA
MODEL: WWW
YEAR: c1945
CASE DIAMETER: 36MM
CASE MATERIAL: STAINLESS STEEL
BRACELET MATERIAL: TEXTILE
MOVEMENT: MANUAL WIND

Few military watches have achieved the legendary status of the “Dirty Dozen” WWW watches. Commissioned by the Ministry of Defence during the Second World War, twelve Swiss manufacturers were tasked with producing robust, accurate and highly legible wristwatches capable of withstanding the demands of active service. The result was a distinctive group of timepieces united by their utilitarian design, black dials, luminous Arabic numerals, subsidiary seconds and the iconic WWW — “Watch, Wrist, Waterproof” — marking on the dial.

The Dirty Dozen is particularly fascinating because each manufacturer interpreted the brief in its own way, creating subtle differences in cases, dials, movements and finishing. The Lemania we have here is part of that twelve but with an interesting twist, it has a Promethium dial. 

In the 60's when the regulations around radioactive material were increasing, the MOD and watchmakers had to take note and start using different luminescent material on their dials. Tritium was the preferred material but Promethium was also used. Known for its super bright glow, they used this material right up to the 90's. Its half life of 2.5 years meant it needed reluming often or have dials swopped to make sure it continued to glow. This is the reason the early P dials are rare, most were replaced with tritium as it lasted a lot longer. 

This example is as honest as they come. The case is great, the dial is untouched, the hour hand is promethium, the minute hand has been relumed at some point in time in what looks to be early tritium based on 0.5 usv output. 

The movement has just been serviced and running superbly at +10 s/d 295 amps with a beat error of 0.2