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| Joined: | Sat Apr 11th, 2009 |
| Location: | Auckland, New Zealand |
| Posts: | 7504 |
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A "pig" buckle is a watch buckle shaped like a submarine or a torpedo. The buckle honors submarine warfare and strictly speaking, torpedo warfare. In the past world war, in the absence of sophisticated guiding systems, navy commandos rode on the backs of torpedoes and guided them while submerged to their targets --- "ejecting" themselves at a certain computed time before the torpedos' impact. Ejection was always preceded by a manual arming of the torpedos' warhead/explosive armament. Impact was calculated using the current, speed of the torpedo, movement of the target in a formation and a host of other things. Time therefore was crucial: a second or 2 of bad timing would mean a miss of the target's pre-determined weakest point or worse, a total miss.
Due to the fat and tubular size (girth) of these torpedos, they were affectionately called "pigs". Panerai, was the first to supply large divers' watches to the Italian Navy, an offshoot of the distinction it earned from supplying other precision marine instruments like depth gauges and compasses (usually worn on the left wrist and watch worn on the right).
For your reference, I attach a recent post of my "pig" buckle. This "pig" is on polished stainless steel. I also have versions in brushed steel and have seen a post of a "pig" in black PVD. For sure there may be titanium versions, bead-blasted versions and various sizes and shapes. The steel on this "pig" is 5mm thick.
Hope this short write-up helps :P
