Wristwatches · Wristwatch
Eterna WW2 Era Military Style wristwatch circa 1942
- Maker / attribution
- ETERNA (maker)
- Date
- c. 1942
- 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 224137301
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 4, THE WATCH AUCTION XIII, Time Studio Watches (2026), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- ETERNA WW2 ERA MILITARY STYLE WRISTWATCH CIRCA 1942 (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 224137301), this is a wristwatch by ETERNA, dated c. 1942. 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 — Time Studio Watches
ETERNA WW2 ERA MILITARY STYLE WRISTWATCH CIRCA 1942, this watch is fitted with a circular black dial with arabic numeral hour markers and hands. The 34mm stainless steel case is fitted with a crown and a case back. Inside is a manually wound movement which is currently running. The watch comes on a brown leather nato strap. If you have any questions regarding this lot please contact us. For further information on our auction, please refer to our T & Cs. We do not guarantee the accuracy of time keeping of any items sold at auction. It is important you ask for specific additional images or any and all questions you deem necessary before bidding on this lot as our refund criteria requires a condition report to have been inaccurately described for acceptance.
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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