Horological Meandering

Lépine
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One of three known solid gold Longines COSD

To many Longines and military watch collectors, the Longines C.O.S.D. Tuna is a grail watch especially with an original Longines factory radium dial. Ever since the first accounts of these watches were made in the landmark Ziggy book on military watches which incorrectly identified the Longines C.O.S.D. as a paratrooper watch, it has been a watch of much discussion and debate. More recently I have researched into several variants of the C.O.S.D. and have built up one of the first and most comprehensive tracking tables on these watches.

There are several variations of these watches that started from the very first prototype Tuna Can COSD. COSD stands for Combined Operations Store Depot that was responsible for providing items for amphibious and commando style operations. The COSD is now known to be a shallow water diving watch that may have been used by clearance divers for hostile beach landing operations. The other major type of COSD is the Dennison cased COSD that was using a more commercially available Dennison watch case. These watches are slightly harder to come by, especially now that many have been used a donors for Tuna COSD since the price of those watches is frequently going over $15,000 USD for nice examples. These Dennison versions were also reused later by the B.O.A.C. airline.

What I have here today that is very special is one of only three known solid gold Dennison cased C.O.S.D. What also makes this watch special is that it belonged to William Lawson of the W.A.E.C. -- Wartime Agricultural Executive Committee. That may not sound like much, but when you consider that all of Britain's eligible men were at war in Europe and Germans controlled the Atlantic Ocean, at the time, Britain was going to loose the war until Churchill got Roosevelt to join the war and the Women's Land Army was created. There was simply no food to sustain the country or the battlefield soldiers. Food supplies grown domestically was crucial for survival let alone victory.

Britain came up with the Women's Land Army to counteract this situation. The women of Britain farmed the lands and raised the beef for the country and the army.

William Lawson was awarded for his efforts starting from WW1 through post WW2 the Order of the British Empire MBE and OBE. This is his watch. He is written about in several books on the Women's Land Army and War Time Agriculture. He did much much more that just administrative work. He used local universities and researched methods to increase productivity of the fields for food production and he held training for the WLA to teach them how to produce more milk, more meat, and more crops. Also, he training WLA how to modernize farming with tractors.  Up until the WAEC got involved, framing was traditional with animals used to pull plows. He demonstrated all over the Wessex area how to use tractors and other modern farm equipment. For all his efforts, he was recognized twice by the British Crown and awarded the Order of the British Empire twice.