WWII Kriegsmarine - German KM War Navy nazi military watches

When the Nazi government took power in 1933, the role of the German Navy wasn’t immediately changed. While other sections of the armed forces quickly saw drastic changes, strategic concepts of the Reichsmarine developed only gradually. With the Military Service Act of the 21st of May 1935 however, the German Navy (Reichsmarine) was renamed Kriegsmarine - which literally means “War Navy”. In October of that same year, the flag was also updated to include a swastika. The construction of new war ships continued rather slowly though, as the capacity of the shipyards was too small for a modern wide-ranging shipbuilding program. The Allies on the other hand had a much larger fleet construction program, which in the end meant the demise of Germany on the maritime battlefield.

Unlike Britain, whose clock industry was nearly non-existent in the 1930’s, Germany already had a large watchmaking industry of their own. This came in handy when the armed forces needed some wrist candy: The Kriegsmarine used wristwatches from German and Swiss watchmakers (Marc Favre, Alpina, Siegerin, Berg, Bidlingmaier, Wagner, Para, Speck, Zentra) alongside their service pocket watches. All these watches had KM (Kriegsmarine) inscribed on their dial faces. These were all good quality pieces. Most were chromed or matte-nickel plated cases, though there are also a few uncommon stainless steel cases (such as the Zentra KM). The basic colors of the dials are white with dark Arabic numerals and bear the producer or brand name with the inscription ‘KM’. All watches offered below were produced and issued to service members between 1935-1945.

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