The Smiths W10 was the British Army’s general service wristwatch from 1967 to 1970, issued under reference W10 and NATO stock number 6645-99-961-4045. It measures 35 mm across, 38 mm including the crown, and 47 mm from lug to lug, in a stainless-steel case with a black dial, luminous Arabic numerals and radium-based paint on the hands and hour markers. Inside is Smiths’ own calibre 60466E, a 17-jewel manual-winding movement with a hacking seconds function so the watch could be synchronised to a signal before an operation.

The W10 specification was met by both Smiths and Hamilton, but only the Smiths version was wholly British — movement, case and assembly — which is why collectors call it the last all-British military watch. Issued examples carry stores numbers and often unit markings on the caseback, and many were worn hard and repaired repeatedly, so originality of dial, hands and crown matters more than cosmetic perfection. The specification itself was deliberately austere: no date, no rotating bezel, a domed acrylic crystal and a simple strap, everything chosen for reliability in the field rather than for looks.

Smiths left watchmaking in the 1970s, and the W10 became the final chapter of a British industry that had once supplied chronometers to explorers and the military. For years the watch was overlooked and cheap; prices have risen as collectors of issued military watches have discovered it, and clean examples with unrefinished dials and matching numbers now trade for real money. It remains one of the most affordable ways into British military horology, and its combination of small size, in-house hacking movement and documented issue history makes it a standard reference in any collection of Cold War-era service watches.