An Eterna 1944 WWW 'Dirty Dozen' British Army-Issued Military Watch. On a black racing leather strap. Caseback reference: " WWW P 4887 3113215." The watch appears to have had the hands re-lumed at some point during it's life, the dial is missing the lume marker at the 1 o'Clock position. During the Second World War, Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) needed watches that could withstand the treacherous conditions of the battlefield and at the time, civilian watches weren't up to the task.
Due to the rigors of military life, very strict specifications were set by the MoD and they invited Swiss manufacturers who could build a watch to their specific requirements, to do so.
In the end, there were 12 manufacturers that produced the W.W.W. (Wrist, Watch, Waterproof) watches for the British Army. The manufacturers were Record, Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Lemania, Grana, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Longines, IWC, Omega, Vertex, and Timor. Over the ensuing decades, the 12 watches became collectively known as the Dirty Dozen earning this nickname from the 1964 war film.
A lot of these watches were destroyed in the 1970s due to the presence of radioactive Radium-226, in the luminescent material, hence the numbers of surviving watches dwindled. This, teamed with the obvious historical significance of the watches, has made them increasingly more collectible. Eterna manufactured only around 5000 of these military watches and how many survived we may never know, and making this quite a rare watch.