Through much of World War II, allied aviators were donning the American-made A-11 service watch. While this tough-as-nails timekeeper performed meritoriously for soldiers and airmen alike, Britain's Ministry of Defense found that the production specifications of the A-11 were too broad and resulted in timepieces too imprecise for effective navigation.
As an answer to the A-11, the MoD issued new standards for the watches issued to its RAF pilots. The new standard, coded 6B/346, required chronometer-grade performance and anti-magnetic properties. For the production of this new timepiece, the MoD turned to major European manufactures, eventually giving contracts to two: International Watch Company and Jaeger-LeCoultre.
The resulting timepiece was the Mark XI Pilot's watch.
In addition to the relatively standard features present on the A-11 (center seconds, hacking and a stainless steel case), the Mark XI featured a soft iron dial and dust cover which shielded the movement from magnetism.
While IWC produced their version of the Mark XI with their existing Calibre 89 (which found its way into many IWC models of the era), Jaeger-LeCoultre filled their orders with a 12.5 ligne, 16-jewel Calibre 488/SBr movement — a movement that was only used in the Mark XI series — making the JLC executions much more sought after by collectors.
This particular example, issued to the Royal Australian Air Force, dates to circa 1953 and features a 34.6mm 'Staybrite' steel case with an acrylic crystal, a 'big' crown, a smooth bezel, and a matte black Radium' dial with printed 'Arabic' indices and a matching handset — in the unique style of the Mark 11 series, with a rectangular hour hand, a 'syringe' minute hand, and a white seconds hand.
This piece comes fitted to an Admiralty Grey Phoenix® NATO strap with stainless steel hardware and is powered by Jaeger-LeCoultre's Calibre 488/SBr hand-wound movement.
If you're a dedicated collector of military watches — or you simply have a respect and appreciation for well made things, history, or beautiful objects — it's going to be hard to pass up such an important timepiece as this!
