Vintage Nurse's Watches

Prior to WWII, most pocket watches, both ladies & gents sized, would only be found with a small subsidiary seconds register where you would view the small second hand in motion. During the war, the US military was able to specify to the watch companies that had bid for war time work (Hamilton, Elgin, etc.) that they wanted production of watches with a more easily viewed second hand so that the people doing jobs that needed accurate timing (bombers, doctors, nurses, etc.) could view the second hand better at a glance. In response came a much more widespread release of what we take for granted today: the sweep second hand.

To meet the criteria for a nurse's watch, the watch must be a small open-faced case watch, 6S or smaller, to allow for the watch to be easily worn via a necklace or lapel pin along with the watch having a sweep second hand.

Additionally, a watch may have an optional nurse's watch case configuration, which has the 12 o'clock at the bottom of the watch case to facilitate quick reading of the time while the watch is worn. While many of the early nurse's watches did not have this configuration, it did become a desirable feature to have a watch cased so that, without having to remove the watch from your person, you could hold the watch in your hand from where it was hanging and then read it quickly without having to twist the watch 180 degrees to view the watch "straight on".

Of interest may be similar larger watches that were typically considered doctor's, bomber's, navigator's or similar technical profession pocket watches in larger sizes that have the previously less common sweep second hands, visible here.