1968/69 Smiths W10 British Military "Unsigned" Civilian Model

Here we have a fascinating 1968/69 Smiths W10 British Military "Unsigned" Civilian Model, a rare variant of the quintessential general service field watch produced by one of England's most historic manufacturers. 

The original owner, Bernard, kindly provided this watch's history. "The watch was given to me by my father in about 1969, my father having received it new from the Smiths factory, as he had secured a contract with Smiths to supply these watches directly to the military. He requested multiple (50, maybe less) to be delivered without military engraving on the casebacks; as you said, this is now called "Civilianised". These were intended to be given to staff for loyalty; I believe some were engraved with names for those staff. He kept 2 and gave me and my brother one each; my brother still hasn't located his, but said he will contact you if he does. The watch originally had a NATO strap fitted to it. I did have the watch serviced some years ago by an experienced watchmaker based in Barnet who has since retired. As we discussed, my father was the export director for Blackwell Young and Company Limited, who were major suppliers and manufacturers of uniforms, badges and other equipment to the military, both in the UK and abroad, trading under the name of Beewyse. Their offices were based in Broad Street Avenue, London, EC2 (which has since been re-developed), and they had manufacturing factories in Manchester and also in Hong Kong when it was still a British Crown colony. For a bit of added history, I have attached a couple of photos of a military cap badge made by my father’s company – this badge was made for the Air Force in Kuwait many years ago. As you told me that you were originally from Leicester, I do know that my father gave a number of large contracts to HJ Hall in Leicester to manufacture and supply socks to the military, and I am pleased to say that they are still manufacturing socks in Leicester to this day."

The 35mm stainless steel round case sits comfortably on the wrist, featuring tapered lugs with fixed springbars and an all-brushed utilitarian finish that underscores its tool-watch DNA. A notable lug-to-lug length of 47mm and a case thickness of 11mm give this vintage piece an impressive and surprisingly modern wrist presence. The unsigned crown sits on the right side, and the fixed smooth bezel holds a box-shaped acrylic crystal over the classic matte black field dial. Designed for ultimate legibility, the dial features a crisp outer railroad minute track with Tritium pips and markers surrounding bold white Arabic numeral hour markers; the military broad arrow (pheon) and the Tritium "T" emblem complete this distinguished timepiece. Elegant steel military sword hands are complemented by a white needle-thin central sweeping seconds hand, with "Smiths" signed proudly below 12 o'clock and "Made in England" visible at the 6 o'clock position. On the reverse, the screw-down stainless steel case back is entirely unengraved, and an internal dust cover protects the movement. Inside beats the historic, in-house manually wound Smiths Cal. 0466E (60466E), 17 jewels, beating at 18,000 beats per hour. Heavily influenced by the high-grade Jaeger-LeCoultre architecture of the era, this English-made calibre features lovely frosted gilding, a teardrop balance cock, and a spring-loaded hacking mechanism that allows you to stop the sweeping seconds hand. The watch comes paired with a well-worn 17mm NATO strap with a pin buckle.