One last watch picture. My dad was a co-pilot on a 376th BG B-24 based in San Pancrazio, Italy. He flew his first mission when he was 19 years old and completed 35 during his tour of duty there. I remember him saying at one time that he should have not turned in the watch that he was issued during his service. It got me thinking and I started looking around to find such a watch.

The watch in question is the A-11 which was manufactured by Elgin, Bulova and Waltham during the war. It is estimated that as many as 200,000 might have been produced. They were highly reliable and were "hack" watches which means that you could stop the seconds hand to get a precise time setting. After the war it is reported that all the watches returned by servicemen were destroyed just like so much other "war surplus."

This is the authentic A-11 that I bought on eBay quite a while ago. The band is a reproduction of a period item. It is pretty darn cool, don't you think?