The Dirty Dozen watches are the twelve W.W.W. (Watch, Wristlet, Waterproof) field watches made for the British Army at the end of World War II by Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lemania, Longines, Omega, Record, Timor and Vertex. Roughly 150,000 were delivered in 1945. Today they are one of the most celebrated "complete the set" challenges in watch collecting — and Vertex, the only British company of the twelve, is the brand with the best story behind it.
Below is everything a collector needs: the history, how to spot a genuine W.W.W., which brands stand out, which one is the rarest, and what a full set costs today.
Early in the war, Britain's own watch industry was busy making fuses, timers and precision instruments, so the War Office turned to Switzerland. A first batch of Army Trade Pattern (A.T.P.) watches came from 17 Swiss firms. By 1944 the Ministry of Defence wanted something tougher and fully standardised, and it issued a new specification. Twelve companies answered the call.
Rather than give the contract to one maker, the MoD asked each firm to build as many watches as it could to the same brief. That is why production numbers vary so wildly from brand to brand — and why some are now cheap to find while others are near-impossible.
Not by the Army. The nickname came decades later from collectors, borrowed from the 1967 war film The Dirty Dozen about twelve convicts sent on a WWII mission. Twelve makers, one wartime brief — the name stuck.
W.W.W. was the ordnance code stamped on the caseback, most commonly read as Watch, Wristlet, Waterproof. It separated these watches from every other piece of kit in the Army's inventory.
Every Dirty Dozen watch had to meet the same brief, which is why they look like siblings from across the room:
Each maker put its own spin on hands, case shape and finishing — those small differences are exactly what makes collecting all twelve so addictive.
Turn it over. A correct caseback carries three things:
Some watches were later sold off or reissued and picked up a third serial, which collectors find especially interesting. Be wary of redials, replacement hands and "frankenwatches" built from mixed parts — originality is where the value lives.
If one brand deserves the spotlight, it is Vertex (often misspelled "Veritex"). Founder Claude Lyons started his first company, Dreadnaught Watches, in 1912 and registered the Vertex name in London and La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1916. Vertex cased Swiss movements for the British market from its base in London's Hatton Garden — similar to how Rolex began.
When the Hatton Garden showroom was destroyed by bombing in 1940, the family kept going. Captain Henry Lazarus, Claude's son-in-law, was asked by the military to help source watches, and Vertex went on to deliver its Cal. 59 W.W.W. Vertex itself cites 4,652 navigation watches built for troops; collector references such as Konrad Knirim's British Military Timepieces estimate a higher total.
Like many brands, Vertex closed in 1972, a casualty of the quartz crisis. In 2016 Don Cochrane, Claude Lyons' great-grandson, brought it back. The modern Vertex M100 reinterprets the Cal. 59 at a modern 40mm, and the family has since added pieces such as the MP45 monopusher chronograph, the M36 and the M60 AquaLion diver. For anyone who wants Dirty Dozen DNA on the wrist without hunting auctions, Vertex is the most direct line back to 1945.
Grana, later part of Certina, made the fewest watches — estimates usually run from 1,000 to 1,500, though some sources go as high as 5,000. It is almost always the last watch a collector needs. In November 2022 a Grana sold at Bonhams for £31,800.
IWC built around 5,000. Its W.W.W. is a direct ancestor of the long-running IWC Mark pilot's watches, which makes it one of the most historically important of the twelve and one of the most expensive to buy.
JLC (around 6,000) and Longines (around 8,000) combine low numbers with elite manufacturing pedigree. Along with the IWC, they tend to command the highest prices after the Grana. Many collectors argue the Longines is the finest-made of the set.
Omega and Record each made about 25,000, the highest numbers in the group. That makes the Omega the most common Dirty Dozen watch and the natural first purchase for a new collector.
With roughly 5,000 made, Eterna is often called the second-rarest after Grana, yet it gets far less attention.
Timor has returned with a near one-to-one reissue of its 1945 W.W.W., offering the original look at a fraction of vintage prices.
The MoD never published official figures. These are the widely cited collector estimates (largely from Konrad Knirim's research):
Single common examples like the Omega or Cyma can still be found in the low thousands. A complete set is another matter: only around 20 full sets are believed to exist, largely because of the Grana. Full sets have been estimated at £25,000–35,000 at auction, and dealers have quoted around £40,000 to assemble all twelve. Condition, originality and matching serials drive the price far more than brand alone.
The Dirty Dozen are often called the first true tool watches: built to a single military brief, issued to ordinary soldiers, and designed to survive mud, water and combat. Their black-dial, Arabic-numeral layout became the template for the modern field watch, and its influence runs through IWC's Mark series, Vertex's revival and countless homages. They also represent a rare moment when twelve competing watchmakers built the same instrument for the same cause.
For collectors, the appeal is simple: twelve watches, one story, and a hunt that can take a lifetime.
Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lemania, Longines, Omega, Record, Timor and Vertex.
Grana, with an estimated 1,000–1,500 made. It is usually the hardest watch to find when completing a set.
Vertex, founded in London by Claude Lyons, was the only British company of the twelve. It was revived in 2016 by his great-grandson, Don Cochrane.
They were commissioned in 1944 and delivered to the British Army in 1945.
Estimates suggest only around 20 complete sets are known, mainly because of the scarcity of the Grana.
Common models such as the Omega typically sell in the low thousands. Rarer pieces like the IWC, JLC and Longines cost more, and a Grana has sold for over £30,000.
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