My Posts

Great find, Brian! As for the strap, while the TR-900 specifications indicate the MIL-S-21382, that strap specification had been superseded by the MIL-S-46383 by the time the first TR-900s were being delivered in 1965. Paperwork was filed to indicate the deviation from original spec to the new spec

Hi Nicolas, Serial numbers were assigned by the US Gov (the US Navy being the agency tasked with final acceptance), but engraved by the Rayville Watch Mfg. Co. Watch serial numbers of units not accepted may or not have been repeated. What further complicates this issue is the fact that while repair

I appreciate the kind replies and am very happy to be able to contribute a little here. Thank you and very kind regards, B.

The single example I absolutely know the story behind is Mr. Dowling's example, which remained at the Blancpain factory till it was sold. This example is just as you describe: no serial number was ever engraved. As for other examples which may be turning up are likely cases which were never complete

Hello gents, In response to Brian's post below: "Lets see your issued bp's!", I thought I share the history of my Tornek Rayville TR-900. Years ago I had the chance to purchase and lucky enough to acquire a TR-900 that had belonged to a very special Marine. Along with the watch came a few things; th

Why does Blancpain continue to use that photo of JFK with the UDT? Not only are the watches not TR-900s, it's impossible to tell what any watch worn in that photo really are. I have the original from the National Archives (28.9 MB file / 6000 X 4801) and can say with %100 certainty that it's impossi

Kind regards, B.

Photo is from the early 1960s. Kind regards, B.

The small case Blancpains are a minefield and have there seem to be a huge number of variants. I'm delighted to have figured this one out; very cool to know the US military were using yet another variant of the BP. Kind regards, B.

Numerals at 12, triangular markers at 3 / 6 / 9, small case ... seems to match perfectly, as does the timeline for photo and watch. Kind regards, B.