The history of The Dirty Dozen

Text: T. Denke

Do you remember the film The Dirty Dozen from 1967 by Robert Aldrych? The star-studded smash hit where Lee Marvin in the role of a major during WWII is given the assignment of disciplining twelve hardened criminals into elite soldiers ready to take on a suicide mission behind enemy lines. But for many it is so much more than an old film! Eqotime gives you the history of the military watch collector's wet dream, The Dirty Dozen! In this first part we look at the whole. And in the coming parts we shall take a look at each watch that is included in the collection.

There is nothing much wrong with the film itself. There a good line-up of actors popular at the time is rolled out. Among others we see a non lollipop-licking Tally Savalas. A moustachioed Charles Bronson. And a Donald Sutherland in top form. But for many watch enthusiasts the dirty dozen is something much bigger than the film. A film whose name has really only been borrowed. Because here there is something much more interesting. Particularly if you have focused your watch interest towards military watches. And then more specifically towards military watches from the Second World War.

The military watches

The Dirty Dozen is then the designation for a dozen wristwatches which during the Second World War were ordered by the British Ministry of Defense according to military specifications and were worn by conscripted soldiers in the British armed forces.  In plain line-up it is watches from the following manufacturers that are counted into the platoon: Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, Jaeger Le-Coultre, Lemania, Longines, IWC, Omega, Record, Timor and Vertex. Common to all the models is that they are produced according to the military specification with hour hand, minute hand, sub-second, Arabic numbering of the indexes and a black dial.

Brands & numbers

These watches are perhaps not particularly exciting individually. Unless you are a collector of older military watches of course. Because then a watch from the Second World War becomes hotter than hottest no matter what. It is a matter of twelve fairly unassuming models from twelve different manufacturers that are each cast in the same military and functional form. We find among other things watches from IWC, Omega, and Longines in the line-up. But alongside the more renowned manufacturers we find watches from manufacturers that are considerably less known today such as Grana and Buren.

But do not let yourselves be fooled. In the line-up it is precisely the slightly more odd manufacturers that are the hardest to get hold of if the sights are set on a complete dirty dozen line-up. For example Grana does not exactly grow on trees considering that they did not produce much more than a thousand or so watches of the model in question.

The Dirty Dozen, with the number of examples produced in brackets (the production numbers are taken from Konrad Knirim’s book British Military Timepieces): 

Buren  (11,000)
Cyma (20,000)
Eterna (5,000)
Grana (unknown number between 1,000 & 5,000 examples)
IWC (5,000)
JLC (6,000)
Lemania (10,000)
Longines (8,000)
Omega (25,000)
Record (25,000)
Timor (13,000)
Vertex (15,000).

A complete collection

Single examples of most of the watches in the Dirty Dozen can however be affordable and possible to get hold of but some belong to the unicorn breed and are very rare. Something that is usually also reflected in the price. But is there then hope for the one who dreams of a complete Dirty Dozen? It is usually said that no more than twenty or so complete collections exist out in the collector world.  Yes, actually. As recently as in August 2020 the British auction house Fellows presented a complete collection. The final price stopped at a full £34,452 including fees. Sweaty, but perhaps good value for a unique piece of history of museum quality that few are granted the chance to experience.