Rare WW2 Luftwaffe watch to be sold at auction

The watch would have been issued to German aviators before missions and returned afterwards

A watch that was made for the Luftwaffe during World War Two is expected to sell for up to £10,000 at auction.

It was part of a collection which belonged to a Royal Engineer from Coventry and had been locked away in a desk drawer for 75 years.

Fellows Auctioneers said it was rare to see watches belonging to the German air force sold at auction.

They were issued to air crews before each flight and used to accurately tell the time on missions.

The auctioneers, based in Birmingham, said because the watches were returned after each mission and never owned by the air crews, they were never passed down or sold after the war.

For this reason they are rare and valuable.

William Albert Holyoake served with The Royal Engineers during World War Two

The one going to auction next month was owned by William Albert Holyoake, known to his friends and family as Bill.

He signed up for military service in August 1944 and served as a sapper for The Royal Engineers.

His family told Fellows he rarely spoke about his time overseas during the war, but it was believed he collected the watch and other items while in Central Europe, possibly after the end of hostilities.

After the war he returned to Coventry and locked the watch away with other family treasures in 1947.

The stainless-steel case does not feature a strap

Fellows Auctioneers believe the watch head was made around 1942.

It has large, luminous, numbers, which would have been useful while flying at night and it is one of 6,904 Beobachtungs-uhren (B-Uhren) watches made by A. Lange & Söhne from 1940-1945, the auction house said.

Pilots would have set their watch to the standard time of the German Naval Observatory after receiving a signal beep from the airbase before missions, when accurate time-keeping was vital.

The watch head is valued at between £7,000 and £10,000 and will be sold as part of a luxury watch auction on 8 August.