I have been researching vintage Tudor watches for almost two decades now, with a special focus on military-issued pieces. Up until now, with the exception of modern collections made for military groups, all the military Tudors that have surfaced so far have no discernible markings on the dials. British military standards insisted on certain specifications such as hand shape, fixed lug bars, a circled “T” on the dial to denote tritium and caseback engravings. In my experience, the single identifiable feature of Tudor military watches is on the casebacks. The French Navy watches have MN engraved on the reverse of the watch, whilst the South African watches have the watch’s unique serial number engraved in a very specific font style. Other forces, especially the United States Navy, had unique stock or location codes engraved on them.
As an academic exercise, it can be very difficult to be 100 percent sure whether a watch is a military piece or not, especially without a number of examples. One of my biggest research pieces has been on the South African watches, and I am now aware of the serial number batches and the engraving styles on those pieces. When it comes to French-issued Tudors, we rely on a similar method of identifying serial number batches, but there is also a watchmaker’s ledger book. There was a Navy-approved watchmaker in Toulon who serviced and maintained the watches that were issued by the Navy. As a way of keeping a log of the work carried out, he kept detailed records in ledger books where the serial number, brand of the watch and ship or unit the watch was issued to were recorded. These books are considered to be a definitive record of watches that were used by the French Navy in active
