Affordable Vintage: Cyma WWW, One of the “Dirty Dozen”

In the early 1940s, the British Ministry of Defense (MoD) published a set of specifications for a wristwatch to be issued to their soldiers. The specifications are commonly referred to as WWW, or Watch Wristlet Waterproof. Twelve companies submitted watches that met the criteria: Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, Jaeger LeCoultre, Lemania, Longines, IWC, Omega, Record, Timor and Vertex.

If you’re into great vintage military watches, click here to read about the Mark 11 specification.

These twelve watches together are called the “Dirty Dozen” by military watch collectors. Interestingly, the second World War ended before these great watches could be issued to soldiers for combat duty.

The dial is black with Arabic numeral hour markers, and a sub-seconds dial at six o’clock. It originally came with Radium lume plots at each hour, and the large baton shaped hands were also filled with Radium. It was common for these to be relumed by the MoD, removing the radioactive Radium and replacing it with a less dangerous material. It seems to be getting harder to find these with original Radium in good condition.

The dial and/or lume on these are often found in poor condition, but with patience and persistence, good examples can be found. My example has a lovely “tropical” dial going, with the original Radium lume on the dial and hands. I even had a co-worker check the Radium with a Geiger counter, and it was chirping like crazy (and it was a tad scary). I’ve seen these go for anywhere from $400 to upwards of $1,000 depending on the condition and seller/site (as of 2017, the going rate for a Cyma WWW is around $1,500). So, if you’re looking for a wearable vintage military watch that won’t break the bank, the Cyma WWW is a great place to start.