Enoksen 'Fly' E03/M - Dirty Dozen - Swiss Movement - 36mm

If you are interested in historic watches you may have heard about the famous Dirty Dozen.

During WWII the British government realised the importance of providing the troops with a general-use watch. Up until then, servicemen had been reliant on whatever timepiece they already had. So in line with what their opposite numbers in Germany and America had already done, the British Ministry of Defence created a set of specifications that a new watch would have to meet in order to be suitable for active duty.

The UK didn't have watchmaking capability in abundance, and the relatively few watchmakers in operation during the war had shifted their focus to naval and aviation instruments, rather than wristwatches. So the British MoD had to look for Swiss watchmakers to meet the need for its new military spec watch, known as  the W.W.W., short for Wrist Watch Waterproof.

12 companies - 11 from Switzerland and one from the UK signed up for the programme and began to manufacture the W.W.W. These companies were Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lemania, Longines, IWC, Omega, Record, Timor and Vertex.

Some of these brands are long gone today, others are still going strong.

All 12 manufacturers added individual touches to their watches, making each of the variations unique. A total of approximately 150,000 watches were manufactured across all 12 companies. CYMA, Omega, and Record all made over 20,000 watches while IWC, Eterna, and Jaeger-LeCoultre all made less than 10,000 pieces.

Our Tribute

As a company with a documented passion for tool and service watches, we are pleased to announce a watch that honours not just the original Dirty Dozen, but also the soldiers that relied on the timekeeping they provided. It is always tempting to follow the original specifications to the letter, but we had another thought: to honour the original size requirements, and materials, but to make improvements in areas that the original watches would have benefitted from, if the technology had been available back then.

Our new Fly E03/M Dirty Dozen is powered by the thoroughbred Sellita SW-216 mechanical Swiss movement. It also has a domed sapphire crystal and a screw-down crown which allows for a 150m water resistance level.