The Watch Goes to War: WWI Aviation 1914-1918 - Mark IV.A and Mark V

The two most import catalysts for the development of aviation watches were early aviation record attempts and war. World War I finds watch development between the pocket watch and the new wristlets with the British issuing pilots pocket watches. British Mark IV.A and Mark V pocket watches are an example of WW1 military aviation.

World War I conjures childhood images of bi-planes fitted with a machine gun to fire through the propeller, the Red Baron’s plane emerging triumphant from a dogfight, and the endless lines of trenches on the ground below. Add the romanticism of aviation to the romanticism of war, and you have an iconic, if mistakenly idealized, pairing. War’s demand for precise navigation or coordinated attack meant that the world grasped the importance of horology. When “balloon busting” or taking out observation balloons, British pilots flew with the pocket watch Mark IV.A (1914) and Mark V (1916).


http://www.monochrome.nl/the-history-of-the-pilot-watch-part-iii-mark-iv-a-and-mark-v/