This rare WWII Elgin Timer is marked ‘U.S. Navy Bur. Ships’. Dated 1941 these stopwatch timers became a staple for U.S. and Allied military usage as the most common was issued to U.S. B-17 navigators.

This timer is a rare U.S. Navy Ship issued model type and was used by the U.S. Navy during WWII for depth charges and torpedos.  One of its most important uses of the A-8 was mainly used for flight navigation, but it was also utilized by Military Engineers, Forward Observers, Submarine Crews and other military outfits.

The large numbers indicate seconds, and with each full rotation (10 seconds) the hand in the small dial moves one increment clockwise. The numbers in the small dial indicate minutes, so each each full rotation of that hand is 5 minutes. The balance wheel is very small, and it sounds like a bee buzzing, that garnered its historic name the “Jitterburg”. The large sweep second hand moves around once in ten seconds. The accumulator records up to 5 minutes.

While we will never know what ship this timer was used on or what operations it serve in…it truly is an amazing piece of World War II history. 

*While the outside of this watch is in great condition the timer does not work.  why we have not tampered and dismantled the watch we believe that a gear is  dislodged and out of place, something that should be easily fixable... however this is just a guess  based on past military watches of this are we have worked with.