Eterna Super KonTiki Ref. 1000 8943 - Patina Dial 'IDF'-Issued

Eterna was founded in 1856 in Grenchen, Switzerland, by schoolteacher Dr. Josef Girard and Urs Schild, beginning life as a small movement manufacturer. By the early twentieth century, the company had established itself as one of the industry's leading manufactures, producing both complete watches and high-quality calibres for other brands. The brands greatest contribution came in 1948 with the introduction of the five-ball-bearing rotor, a seemingly simple innovation that dramatically improved the efficiency and longevity of automatic movements. The design became so closely associated with the company that five balls were incorporated into the Eterna logo, and the principle has since become a standard feature of automatic watchmaking across the industry.

The piece that we have here comes from Eterna's 'KonTiki' family of dive watches and dates to circa the 1970s. The 'cushion' case comes in at a substantial 41mm in diameter and features a uni-directional rotating bezel with a black timing insert, a screw-down crown, a screw-down caseback, and a mineral crystal. There were very few dive watches in this era that possessed all of these features, most of which are standard for dive watches until today. Inside, the matte black dial has applied Tritium-filled indices, a framed date aperture at 3 o'clock. an applied logo, and a high-contrast white-painted handset. It comes fitted to its correct steel bracelet with a signed spring-loaded blade clasp.

Last but not least, flip it over, and the caseback engravings are a clear indicator that this piece was issued to the Israeli Defense Forces special forces unit, confirming its military provenance.

This is a real piece of history — a phrase often repeated in the world of watches, though rarely as deservedly as in this case.

And when compared to other military-issued pieces from other brands, this actually is fantastic value, and they do not grow on trees!