Buren Dirty Dozen British 1945

About this watch

An attractive Buren Dirty Dozen British, which dates back to 1945, and originates from the first line of non-civilian wristwatches worn by the British military.
Made to withstand the hardship of war, it has a handsome signature black dial with arabic numerals, luminous hour and minute hands, as well as luminous hour markers, a sub-seconds dial at six o’clock, a shatterproof crystal, a stainless steel case, a 15 jewel movement (produced in-house by Buren), is Cal. 462 and measures at 36mm.

One of the more coveted military watches, this model is in good condition and keeps excellent time.

Additional information:

The ‘Dirty Dozen’ was the name given to a group of 12 similary-styled watches worn by British soldiers at the time of WWII, which were commissioned from 12 companies by the British Ministry of Defence. Each company delivered as many watches as their manufacturing would allow. Roughly 11,000 of these were Buren watches, which was comparatively few compared to some of the bigger manufacturing brands included.

A total of roughly 100,00-150,000 Dirty Dozen watches were made available across the brands – very few collectors own the full range, although many aspire to.

At the time, the watches were called W.W.W. — for Watch, Wristlet, Waterproof.