The Project
80th Anniversary of D-Day
Two years ago, in commemoration for the 78th Anniversary of D-Day, we released an A-11 “Marston Mat”. The dial was made out of a D-Day Marston Mat found near UTAH Beach, Normandy. Jump to 2024 and, with the upcoming 80th Anniversary of D-Day, we knew we had an opportunity to immortalize this anniversary & the history behind it. By chance, thanks to our relationships within the veteran & D- Day community, we landed on two “hamburger” doors that came from two D-Day veteran C-47 Skytrains. These planes were used to ferry airborne troops such as Tom Rice (101st Airborne) from England to Normandy in the early morning of June 6th 1944. Using our experience form the A-11 Marston mat, we managed to cut the C-47’s aluminum doors into dials, keeping the original wear & tear accumulated by these planes during their combat service in WW2.
Real UTAH Beach Sand
Encased in a WW2 US Mil-Spec Watch
UTAH Beach A-11
Black
UTAH Beach A-11
Khaki Green
UTAH Beach A-11
Ocean Blue
The Project
Utah Beach Sand & Landing Maps
Alongside the C-47 Skytrain A-11 Edition, we’ve had the opportunity to work hand in hand with the mayor of Sainte-Maire-Du-Mont & the neighboring Utah Beach museum to offer a creative commemoration piece. We’ve collected sand from Utah Beach on the 79th Anniversary of D-Day (2023) and subsequently applied the sand directly onto a watch dial.
We then got creative with the idea and, instead of having a single “sand” dial, we’ve ended up with three separate dials. The first dial is a full Utah Beach Sand dial. The two other dials are laid on top of the sand and are meant to represent the coast of Normandy where all 5 D-Day Beaches were situated. The “color” dial represents the sea while, the uncovered sand dial is meant to represent the actual beaches where 150,000 soldiers landed. These five beaches (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword) are also marked directly onto the dial, giving a unique look to the watch.
Designed in collaboration with the Mayor of Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont, this project is our more creative take on how to commemorate the d-Day landings for the 80th Anniversary. We are going to be bringing over 30 watches with us to these D-Day celebrations & plan on giving one watch to every WW2 Veteran in attendance at Utah Beach as a thank you for their service.
Get Final Batch Early AccessTYPE 44 SAND DIAL
SPECIFICATIONS
Case:
38mm Stainless Steel 10 ATM Water Resistance
Hands:
Sword Hands w/ Super Luminova
Dial:
Triple Layer Dial with UTAH BEACH Sand
Glass:
Double Domed Acrylic Crystal
Movement:
Miyota 9039 Automatic
Straps:
Blue/Black Tropic Rubber Strap Green Two Piece NATO Strap
THE UTAH BEACH
A-11 UP CLOSE
The Utah Beach A-11 “Ocean Blue” Dial - the sand dial represents the beach while the blue dial is meant to symbolize the English Channel
Close up of the Utah Beach A-11 “Khaki” Dial - The top layer Khaki dial is shaped exactly like the Normandy Coast where D-Day occurred. We’ve even marked down all 5 landing beaches directly on the dial (UTAH, OMAHA, GOLD, JUNO, SWORD)
A 1944 Map from the British War Office highlighting the 5 landing beach & the position of artillery bombardement platforms on D-Day. We’ve used this exact map as the basis for our Utah Beach A-11.
The Utah Beach A-11 “Midnight” - the sand is taken directly for UTAH Beach in collaboration with the Utah Beach Landing Museum, it is naturally very light in color and contrasts well with the black.
“Taxis to Hell - and Back - Into the Jaws of Death” an iconic D-Day photography taken on D-Day during the landings. American Soldiers are seen wading in waist-deep water as they come out of their Higgins Boat to assault German positions
The Utah Beach A-11 “Khaki” Dial - featuring Patina Hands that are meant to match the sand coloration from the dial. Notice that the indexes from the Khaki dial are actually cut out - letting the sand shine through.
The C-47 ””Hamburger Door” A-11
An A-11 design meshed with a C-47 Skytrain Fuselage
Due to the nature of the project, limited quantities are available
A D-Day C-47 Repurposed
A Piece of History Encased in a WW2 US Mil-Spec Watch
C-47
Aluminum Patina
C-47
Olive Green
C-47
Aluminum Gray
The Process
From a C-47 "Hamburger" Door to a unique A-11 Watch
The two C-47 "Hamburger" Doors at our warehouse.
Close up on one of the C-47 Hamburger Doors
Preparation for dial processing - cutting the doors into metal strips.
Result of cutting up the doors with a circular saw in house. The thinness of the aluminum made it pretty easy.
First batch of sample dials - on the right hand side you can see the doors cut up into strips.
A final dial before we printed the indexes & integated it to the entire watch assembly
A Visible Piece of History
Our C-47 Hamburger Doors have lived through some of the most heroic events history has ever seen. When working on these dials, we decided that the dials should bear witness to these events. For that reason, the dial has had its indexes printed directly onto the raw metal with all its imperfections & scratches clearly visible.
Built to pass down the heroic D-DAY story
With the insane historical legacy our C-47s have, we decided to build this A-11 Service Watch for exceptional longevity. Equipped with a Miyota 9039 Automatic Movement and combined with a double domed sapphire glass, we’ve looked to maximize reliability & durability. We’ve also added a screw-down crown & 10 ATM Water Resistance to give this watch a true field watch rating.
A WW2 Era Design
Built with WW2 C-47 Aluminum
A Legendary Plane meets an Iconic Watch
The C-47 Skytrain was a military transport aircraft extensively used by the Allies throughout WW2 with 10,000+ built in its service history. Our C-47s were both used as paratrooper transports over the skies of Normandy on D-Day. Renowned for its reliability & versatility, the C-47 has since become iconic for its incredible contributions to D-Day & the ultimate Allied Victory in Europe.
On the other hand, the A-11 Military Specification Watch laid the groundwork for a standardized “field watch”. Designed to be readable, rugged & affordable, the A-11 Spec was produced in over 150,000 pieces to equip the US Military during its WW2 campaign. It became the foundation of what we today define as a “field” watch with its large white indexes printed on a black dial. Readability at all costs.
For our C-47 D-DAY A-11, we’ve meshed two iconic pieces of D-DAY US Military gear into a single watch designed to commemorate the contribution of both men & machine during June 6th 1944. More specifically we've used "hamburger" doors - located in front of the propeller, these were nicknamed that way because if the prop was turning when you opened the door, you'd become a hamburger.
The A-11 C-47 Aluminum Patina - each dial will have unique scratching from the wear & tear of the original C-47's lifetime.
The A-11 C-47 Olive Green - we've thinned down the paint layers to make sure the wear & tear can shine through the green paint.
Based off our very first A-11 Tom Rice case, the A-11 C-47 is upgraded to 10 ATM water resistance with a screw down crown for true field watch performance.
The indexes on all our A-11 C-47 dials have been printed with volume for added readibility & effect.
THE C-47
SPECIFICATIONS
Case:
38mm Stainless Steel
10 ATM Water Resistance w/ Screw Down Crown
Hands:
Sword Hands w/ Super Luminova
Dial:
C-47 Skytrain Aviation Grade Aluminum w/ Super Luminova Indexes
Glass:
Double Domed Sapphire Crystal
Movement:
Miyota 9039 Automatic
Straps:
“Invasion Strap” NATO & Brown Leather strap
REVIEWS
PRESS & CUSTOMER
Given the attention to detail that Praesidus has put into this Dirty Dozen-inspired model, it feels like a very fair deal.
Balanced, elegant, and surprisingly artful for a piece of military-issued field equipment.
Sizing & Finishing
US ASSEMBLY
As is standard for Praesidus - the C-47 D-DAY is assembled & quality controlled in the USA at our workshop. Just like the original C-47 D-DAY watches were.
Copyright © 2024 Praesidus. All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2024 Praesidus.
All Rights Reserved