4th ID Vietnam wrist Watch? any thoughts?

[Ben@HI]

found this one locally but I know nothing about watches. the seller said the vet actually used this in Vietnam, I don't trust stories like this especially when the seller cant even give out the first name of the vet or a time as to when he served. it still works and it looks to have so age to it. its made by a company called Rita and in there logo it says 1866-1966 so I guess it was made after 1966. its a stainless steel 100% water proof automatic and its shock proof and has a unbreakable mainspring and a 25 jewel swiss movement. I added the band, the one that was on it did not fit the watch well. has anyone ever seen one of these before and if so is it really Vietnam era or something post war? thanks

 

 

[gwb123]

Not to split hairs, but the watch could have been made in 1966. The marking could have been in celebration of their 100th year.

 

You may have done a Google search as I just did, but a watch company named Rita seems to be nonexistent on the internet. I did get a lot of hits for some superstar named Rita "watching" things though!

[Ben@HI]

that's the same problem I had. I googled this watch every way I could think of and I found a lot of rita's and a lot of issue Vietnam era wrist watches and even some modern 4th ID watches that look like something out of a vending machine but nothing like this. its maddening how common of a name "Rita" is. thanks for looking for me, I probably should have mentioned the google thing to start with. you know if they made watches for A 100 years you would think there would be more of them around somewhere. haha maybe they just took a 100 years on this one ;-)

[Sabrejet]

A handsome timepiece Ben. If it's still functional, I'd be inclined to replace the leather strap with an OD military-style one (you can still find original WW2 hack watch straps on eBay) and I'd wear it!

 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/18-18mm-WWII-Vintage-Military-Cotton-Canvas-Stitching-Watch-Strap-/200933129248?pt=US_Watch_Bands&var=&hash=item2ec88c3c20

[Ben@HI]

actually when I got it the seller said it did not work right and in a way he was right. if you wind it up around 6:00AM it will be about 5 minutes slow by midnight , but if you ware it (its an automatic) it keeps pretty good time. I did ware it for about a week to see how the automatic feature worked as I had never owned one before. in the end I felt a little off about warring it as not only was no member of my family in 4th ID but no member of my family even served during Vietnam.