: Thanks for the thread Jeff - I wasn't going to post anything for
: another week or two as I'm cameraless, so I only have the
: telephone, but here goes...

: I've always liked this family, right from the early Leonidas,
: through the standard Bunds and on to the Tutimas of more recent
: times. In amongst this large family there are the oddities of
: course, the Heuer Cal 12 prototype Bund that never was is
: probably the rarest of them. Next up is probably this variant of
: the standard Heuer 1550 Bund, it is the Sternzeit Reguliert
: version, the 1551 SGSZ, issued to artillery units in the early
: seventies as an astro-navigational chronometer. It originally
: came in a leather case with a star chart and notes, but I don't
: have that at the moment.

: 'Sternzeit Reguliert' translates as 'Regulated to Sidereal time'
: which runs about 4 minutes a day slower than local time. This
: was to assist in theodolite sighted position-fixing by the
: artillery units (it's important to know where you are so you
: know how to far and in what direction to lob your shells).
: Mine has been regulated to run at a normal rate; 18,000bph in the
: case of the Valjoux 230 movement that runs it. The movement
: itself is a good one, based on the Valjoux 23, manual of course,
: column wheel and fly-back.

: The lever towards 11 o'clock, near the column wheel, functions the
: fly-back:
:
: (Courtesy Alan Cook)

:
:

: The unique NSN for the Sternzeits -
:
:

: Flush, nicely bevelled crystal:
:
:

: Next to the similarly cased Sinn 156:
:
:

: And the backs - notice the slightly asymmetric pushers on the
: Valjoux 230 as opposed to the Lemania 5100 and the difference in
: caseback depth between the manual and auotomatic:
:
:

:
:

: Anyway a brief look at an uncommon variant on the Bunds, I guess
: about 100-150, possibly more, but you don't see them for sale
: very often. Some of them changed dials at service, but the NSN
: and 1551 SGSZ engraving between the lugs are unique to this
: model.

: Anyway, I would recommend Richard Askhams site for excellent
: details on the movement - http://thewatchspotblog.com/?p=922
: and Walter Mannings site for 3H Bund variant information -
: http://brown-snout.com/horology/articles/heuer_bundeswehr_chrono/
: then of course Dr Konrad Knirims extract -
: http://www.knirim.de/heuerbund.pdf for excellent background and
: technical details. (I was in touch with Konrad about production
: numbers and he already knows about the discrepancy of course
: :thumbup: ) and finally Daves thread comparing the two models in
: much deeper detail -
: http://forum.atgvintagewatches.com/showthread.php?t=621

: So, not a Lemania for a change for me, but it's a refreshing change
: nonetheless.

:
:

: Here on an extract from the LRDG manual, giving interesting
: background on the same navigational technique:

:
:

: Cheers,
: Andy