There it rests, unyielding against the tide of time. Forged in steel with the radium dial a faint whisper of a world ablaze. It has endured the ravages of war. And yet, it ticks. It ticks as though it remembers.

To understand it we must first look at the ‘Dirty Dozen’. Twelve watchmakers, including Omega, Longines and IWC, tasked with creating resilient, precise timepieces during the Second World War. But the Bulova wasn’t a part of this storied group, it was a 13th soldier from a later war.

Picture the trenches of the 1940s. Mud clings to boots like an unshakable shadow. The air hangs heavy with the acrid stench of cordite. A young soldier sits in the dim light of a smoky dugout, his trembling hands cupped around a tin mug of lukewarm tea. His rifle leans against the wall beside him, but it is the watch on his wrist that he glances at, as if the passage of seconds might offer him some reprieve, proof that a world beyond this hell still exists.

This Bulova was his companion. It has borne the weight of mud and rain, of blood and silence. For the soldier, this watch is not a tool but a tether to a world left behind, a wife waiting with a letter unopened, a child too young to understand why his father is gone. Each glance at it is a silent conversation, a reminder that time, although often cruel, will pass.

The irony of its condition is not lost. Impeccable for its age, the watch carries no scars even though it has witnessed thousands.

There is something poetic in the notion that a watch, an object devoid of feeling, could outlast the men who once entrusted their lives to it. But perhaps that is the essence of war: the things we create to cope with it often outlive us.

And so it ticks. Against the silence of a century, after the pain and the forgotten, it still ticks.

CONDITION: Original, Unpolished (excellent condition)
SPECIFICATIONS: Steel Milspec Case, Original Radium Dial, non OEM Leather Strap, Stainless Steel Buckle, Very Rare, 1940s Military Issue (Post WWII)
MOVEMENT: Mechanical
DIMENSIONS: 33mm (without crown)

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