This is a curious little watch! It has the Weems designation and is therefore a military piece, yet it is a solid 14k Gold watch. It is a relatively small watch at 30mm in diameter although this is not unusual for this era. Lt. Commander Philip Van Horn Weems, U.S. Navy was the originator of this interesting piece of horological history. In collaboration with Longines he was able to invent a watch that took the error out of the wristwatch many aviators used for positioning, fuel consumption, time to runway thresholds and any time critical operation that an aviator undertook. The patent would indicate that this watch was contracted by the US military. Why would they make such a nice watch for an aviator and in solid gold...one can only conjecture? Perhaps the watch was originally in a base metal case and the rotating bezel that allowed the second hand to be synched was no longer needed in civilian life or the owner just wanted a momento of the war housed in a gold case. We will never know for sure, but wasting money is what they do at the Pentagon! Regardless this can be to your benefit now! We offer you a scarce 15 jewel, sweep second, original dial, Wittnauer Weems in a 14k solid gold case! There are darned few of these out there and this could be the one for you!