Omega ‘Dirty Dozen’ watch sparks battle

An example of one of the so-called ‘Dirty Dozen‘ watches from the Second World War went under the hammer in a recent Cotswold auction, selling for thousands.

The Omega wristwatch, a local family-owned example, was one of watches commissioned by The Ministry of Defence during WWII. Twelve watch companies were contracted to create wrist watches for the British armed forces according to a specific set of criteria, including IWC, Record, Jaeger LeCoultre, and Longines to name a few. The ‘holy grail’ of the Dirty Dozen watches are those manufactured by Grana.

These watches became known as the ‘Dirty Dozen’ among collectors after the 1967 film starring Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson.

The watch in the sale sold above its estimate for a total of £2,210 to a local collector at Kinghams Auctioneers.

Another item of great interest was a diamond-set Piaget pocket watch with a ‘Mystery Dial’. This particular piece used a diamond mounted on a disc in place of the traditional hour hand to create the illusion of a floating diamond hour indicator. It sold above estimate at £4,860.