Wristwatches · Wristwatch
Cyma Military Era Service Style Men's Wristwatch Manual Wind c. 1940
- Maker / attribution
- CYMA (maker)
- Date
- c. 1940
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Wristwatch
- Auction house
- LiveAuctioneers auction archive
- Lot
- Item 233765570
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 18, Luxury Vintage Watches, Jewellery & Clocks, Blenheim Auctions (2026), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- CYMA Military Era Service Style Men's Wristwatch Manual Wind c.1940 (English)
View the source record (auction lot) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 233765570), this is a wristwatch by CYMA, dated c. 1940. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Wristwatches collection. The record is illustrated with 4 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Lot description — Blenheim Auctions
CYMA Military Era Service Style Men's Wristwatch Manual Wind c.1940This Cyma gentleman’s wristwatch, circa 1940, perfectly captures the understated utility of the military era. Housed in a robust 33mm chromium-plated case with a 39mm lug-to-lug profile, the timepiece features an elegantly aged silvered dial, distinguished by its crisp Arabic numerals and a finely recessed subsidiary seconds dial at the six o’clock position. The period-correct "syringe" hands and refined track further enhance its utilitarian charm. Presented in excellent vintage condition and offered in working order,Size: 33mm x mm1940Chrome SteelPrivate London Collector, cleared on registered loss database. In Full Working Order
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
The wristwatch overtook the pocket watch. Military use in the First World War, aviation, water-resistant cases (1926), automatic winding (1923–31), rectangular Art Deco designs and early chronographs and calendars defined the period.
Read the period in the timelineMore wristwatches from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Military, pilot and travel watches
The wristwatch owes much of its adoption by men to warfare and aviation. Wristlets — small pocket watches soldered with lugs and worn on a strap — were used in colonial campaigns and became standard equipment in the First World War, with protective grilles over the crystal ('shrapnel guards'). Louis Cartier's Santos (1904), designed for the aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, is often cited as an early purpose-made pilot's watch.
In the Second World War governments specified watches in detail: the German B-Uhr observation watches, the American A-11, and the British 'W.W.W.' (the 'Dirty Dozen' set of 1945). After the war, jet travel brought GMT and world-time watches, which show two or more time zones at once — Louis Cottier's world-time mechanism and the Rolex GMT-Master (1955) are examples.
What to look for
- Military markings on the case back: broad arrow, issue numbers, 'W.W.W.', 'A.T.P.'
- High-legibility black dials with luminous Arabic numerals; oversized crowns for gloved hands.
- 24-hour hands and rotating 24-hour bezels or city rings on GMT/world-time watches.
- Wire lugs on early wristlets converted from pocket watches.
Dating clues
- Wire-lug wristlets: c. 1900–1925.
- Military specifications of the Second World War: 1939–1945.
- GMT and world-time wristwatches: mainly after 1950.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
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