1984 CWC Dodane Hong Kong Special Divers Watch

From 1983, the standard Royal Navy issued dive watch switched to a quartz movement.  However, there also exists a mechanical automatic dive watch bearing 1984 issue markings, and produced in a batch of 100 watches (from observed case back issue numbers).  One hypothesis is that they were a special order for a British military unit in Hong Kong, as many have been found in Hong Kong (hence the "Hong Kong Special" nickname). 

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However, extensive searches of photographs and other records have failed to turn up any evidence of this, and the diving and Royal Marines units in Hong Kong at the time do not seem to have been large enough to warrant an order of 100 watches.  Some have also been found in India, suggesting a possible link to there.  But at the very least, quite a number of these came to the market through a Hong Kong dealer, including some creative redials with Omega-style open 6s and 9s.

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The watch does not look like any of the other 1980s CWC dive watches; it is in a different style case and is of a notably lower quality, the logo on the dial is a strange variant of the previous sans-serif logo but in an oval, and the movement is different to the ones used in 1980 and 1981.  

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The handset is similar to the 1980 dive watch, and the dial has a very small circled T below the central pinion and luminous numbers 3, 6 and 9, both features only found on the 1980 dial made by Dodane.

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The case is an Airain France case - which is another brand name owned by Dodane - and a Dodane family member appears to have confirmed that they made "CWC" watches in 1980 and 1984.    Airin also produced a civilian version of this watch.

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Given how different this watch is from all other CWC dive watches, there has long been debate about whether this watch was actually supplied by CWC.  Ray Mellor was categorical that CWC did not supply the watch.  "It’s obvious - if the movement is somebody else’s or one that we’d never used, the case is made by a casemaker who knew us but didn’t necessarily know what it was being used for, and if the dial is marked with CWC not by us, then it’s a fake!"

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The evidence strongly suggests that this was an order fulfilled by Dodane, trading on the fact they made the original 1980 diver, but was never actually a CWC watch.

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Above taken from the excellent CWC Addict Website.

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As you can see from the excellent article above, it's only believed that around 100 of these Watches existed, however after a chat with the brilliant Jon Hughes at CWC Addict, there are only 20 known examples of these recorded. 

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 The Interest in CWC Issued Watches, I have found to be growing at a supersonic rate and these early automatic models are so seldom seen these days as they are mainly all in your serious Collectors Collection.  They are a huge part of the history of CWC, even this early "fake".

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This represents a fantastic opportunity and investment.

The Specs