Angelus Military Vintage Chronograph Collector’s Guide
If you are a vintage Angelus fan or a military watch geek, you’d probably want to read this article.
Angelus Collector’s Guide
The latest issue of Klassik Uhren for our German readers
…a lot of dealers offering these watches are far from being honest.
Some of you remember that around this time of the year in 2017 we published an article that contained a pdf about a similar topic. Good friend and vintage Angelus expert Dr. Christoph Öhm-Kühnle have written extensively about Angelus, covering the brand from its early days until today. I was asked to help with a few topics, and this is when the idea of the below project was born. I had been already doing some research on military Angelus chronographs of the early 1950s, especially the ones used by the Hungarian Army. During my research, I came across many interesting stories and amazing watches. Sadly, I also realized that a lot of dealers offering these watches are far from being honest. And this is an understatement. You know who you are, and now we know too. Still, there are many amazing vintage Angelus chronographs – military or not.
Military chronographs
Based on my research I wrote an in-depth article on the military Angelus chronographs. Obviously, there still are a bunch of open questions but having spent years with the research I can say that I did my best in answering them. The article is available in two languages; German and English. If you would like to read it in German (and in print) I encourage you to order the latest Klassik Uhren Magazine under this link. For those of us who find it extremely challenging to master the linguistic beauty of the German language, please find the pdf version of the article in English below. Note, that the design is not too fancy since this is the work version. However, the text and images are identical. As my research is still ongoing, I’d like to encourage anyone who owns one of these vintage Angelus chronographs to email me.
Click here to download the English article (PDF, +-65MB).
The gorgeous Angelus L.E. (Légi Erő or Air Force)
What to expect
The article will give you a quick historical run-down of the major events in Hungary during the early 1950s. It will also explain why and how the government could purchase these intriguing and rare timepieces. This hopefully puts the country’s history to a different perspective for you. I also tried to explain how I categorized the watches and what should be the key giveaway of an authentic Angelus L.E. This research document is not finalized. I get emails on a monthly basis from collectors, vintage Angelus fans or family members of people who received these watches during their service in the military. So, I have new stories to share and information to add to the research. Still, I hope you’ll be able to use it to position your watch should you own one. For those of you who do not own such a watch, I hope you find it an interesting read.
I’d like to thank Mr. Christian Pfeiffer-Belli, editor-in-chief of Klassik Uhren for his help with this project.
