A perennial favourite amongst collectors partly due to its utilitarian no-nonsense layout and incredible quality, the Mk 11 is a great casual watch to wear as a daily beater. Often misnamed as a Mark 11 or Mark XI, the correct spelling according to the MoD is actually Mk 11. Something like this really does not come up very often and to find one in this condition is unbelievable. This IWC Mk 11 somehow managed to escape the change and retains its original radium dial as denoted by the lack of the ’T’ marking on the dial most would be used to seeing. Nearly all of the Mk 11s either have service dials from IWC, or had their luminous material replaced with tritium by the Ministry of Defence. This example is perhaps one of the rarest iterations of the Mk 11. It was, without doubt the most advanced watch issued to the military at the time. With a thick iron dial and a soft iron dust cap, this created a Faraday cage, protecting the movement from any interference from the other equipment on the plane. The Mk 11 watches can lay claim to be the first watch that was built from the ground up to be antimagnetic. These all stemmed from real needs from pilot’s in the RAF who relied on these watches both for navigation and timing purposes. Some of the 6B/346 specs included the need to be regulated or adjusted to a chronometer level, the need for a hacking function, for it to be waterproof and to be anti-magnetic. Considered by many to be the original Pilot’s watch, it was made to the incredibly strict 6B/346 specifications and was one of the costliest commissions for a wristwatch by a military. Hand held ones are also available and not very expensive, less than $50.The Mk 11 wristwatch issued to the British Royal Air Force (RAF) was aviation’s equivalent to the marine chronometer- aptly nicknamed the air chronometer. There are Geiger counters available for smart phones, and I used to carry one all the time, it is just a little collector tube that plugs into your phone. Stripped Radium dials are still radioactive, but I would assume the risk is far less. In all cases the emissions are still fairly high afterwards. As I have mentioned elsewhere, removing the Radium also does not render the watch non-radioactive. Is that old watch beat up and with a cracked crystal, and flaking Radium lume? Or is it in fairly good condition, and looks as though it has been well kept? We've all seen Radium burns on dials, but remember that takes many years of the hand not moving. I do have an old Tudor that I wore for decades, with no ill effects as far as I know. This does inform my decisions to wear or even collect Radium watches. Everyone knew it was hazardous, but you just got on with it. ![]() My Grandfather was also a watchmaker, and suffered terribly from radium sickness because during WWII he was tasked with repairing Aircraft Instruments and re-painting luminous instructions on panels. ![]() Radium paint can be stabilized like any other paint if it begins to flake, but this is conservator work. That said, there are a great many watches that would not suffer any loss of value by re-dialing or removal of Radium. Any time you have a rare watch, and I mean, really rare, or really valuable, doing any kind of mod or refinish will be detrimental to the value. ![]() Higher end vintage watches like Rolex can be affected very negatively value-wise, if the dial has been re-done in any way. I would add that there certainly are instances where touching the dial in any way will profoundly affect the value.
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