Grana WWW Dirty Dozen British Army Wristwatch c.1945
The WWW watches are perhaps the most popular and collectible military watches amongst all those issued to the British Army. This is perhaps because they were the first to be specially designed and custom made for the British Army.
WWW stands for Watch, Wrist, Waterproof and was the descriptive code used by the British Army to identify it as a piece of equipment.
These watches began being manufactured and issued to the British Army in early 1945.
There were 12 Swiss manufacturers of the WWW watches and as such, the collection is commonly referred to by collectors and dealers alike as “The Dirty Dozen”.
Only around 1,500 Grana WWW wristwatches were made for the British Army during WW2. Consequently, the Grana WWW is considered to be the “holy grail” by many military watch collectors who aspire to own all twelve of the “Dirty Dozen”.
The watch for sale is in wonderful original condition and comes directly from the family of the original owner, Frank Hudson. Surprisingly, Hudson served in the RAF from 1938 until 1946.
A letter of provenance from the family and some interesting history regarding LAC Hudson’s life and military service accompanies the watch.