The South African Watchmakers job was to repair all wristwatches and Aircraft clocks that were bought to him. There were 2 that i know of between 1970 and 1989…….one of which i have the privilege to have met and who has until recently worked on all the SAF watches and clocks that i have come across. I will refer to him as “D”. D had a special inside caseback engraving that was inscribed on all the watches he repaired, that included the date, his “Name” and where the service was done. This would be one of a few locations……Waterkloof Airforce base (WKF), Valhalla Airforce base (VLH), Voortrekkerhoogte Administration (VKA) or Swartkops Airforce base (SKB).

“D” performed many “hand upgrade” requests from Pilots. Apparently a few complained about being unable to distinguish between the time and the Chrono hands. “No Problem!”…”D” had the perfect solution!………He referred to this day-glo yellow lume as “ORYX yellow”. The ORYX was a South African built helicopter built by the Atlas Aircraft company to fulfill the needs of the South African Airforce during its border war in the early 1980’s. He even gave me a small scoop of it to use if i needed to do the same upgrades! 🙂

During a cleanout a few years back, D asked me if i would be interested in the service documentation he had for the issued watches……..I thought about it for about half a second and then of course said YES! First up is the Lemania 5012 service document, and everything pertaining to the servicing, oiling and assembly/disassembly order of the 5012 calibre.