The IWC Who Lived in the Bottom of a Cigar Box for 80 Years

[dannymac55]

I posted on this watch a few months back when I came across it going through my grandfather's World War II items. It recently returned from a servicing to restore it back to working order.

To recap the story...

In the bottom of an old cigar box filled with mementos from the European Theater (mostly patches torn from Nazi uniforms, a Nazi arm band, and party lapel pin) were four watches with notes attached to them, indicating they had been taken from German prisoners of war. The first three were fairly underwhelming Art Deco style men's watches (the watch face on one read "Anker 15 Rubis", the other two had no marking on the watch faces). The fourth was underneath everything, with a strap so grimy it was stiff. Expecting this to be another nondescript watch like the other 3, I didn't really look too hard at it.

A few weeks later when I went through to document the watches for the purpose of making an inventory of the items in my grandfather's estate, I looked at the watch again and immediately saw "International Watch Co. SCHAFFHAUSEN" on the face. Ironically I had just been looking at their pilot's chronographs, so my interest was immediately peaked.

I consulted with a few of you here and others online and was told it was a rare combination of a salmon dial with curved indigo blue hands. I've not seen another example of this watch out there. Given this, I decided to have it serviced as it didn't run, and there was so much green rust the hands wouldn't want to move when I'd manually moved the hands.

It was sent to Total Watch Repair in Van Nuys, CA where a service was conducted, and the dial was cleaned. It now runs perfect, and the dial has been brought back to life. The strap, as I said, was very grimy so I cleaned it myself with some warm water and soap allowing me to get most of the dirt and grime off. At one point I encountered a stain I believed to be blood given the dark brown color and how oily it was once I got some warm water on it. After 80 years I suppose any stain made by an oily liquid might look like dried blood, however.

As pictured below, I put the watch on once it was returned to me after a few months. It didn't dawn on me at the time, but the last time the watch was likely wound and worn in a clean condition was over 80 years ago. Between then and now it's seen war, German defeat, Allied victory, and the bottom of a cigar box.

It's not my style, and though it's more the size of a women's watch today my wife isn't keen to wear a watch that, as she says, "was worn by a Nazi", so I'm likely to part with it. Below are a few photos of the restored version.