Wednesday Hump Day Fun Fact # 43 !!!
Posted by Daubin Barshtak on February 12, 2014.
During the First World War the unprecedented wide battlefronts meant that the coordination of thousands of soldiers had to be synchronized to a much more precise nature than in previous military conflicts. Millions of troops were issued with a ‘trench watch’, doing much to dispel the pre-war image of the wristwatch as unmanly. It was also important that trench watches could be read in zero lighting conditions and that they were robust enough to survive life in the war zone. Several watchmakers released chronographs with radium-illuminated dials and protective shrapnel guards in response.
(Trench watch pictured above with decorative shrapnel guard)