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CAPTAIN ROBERT LEWIS'S MIDO MULTIFORT WATCH WITH TRENCH ART CUFF BRACELET MADE AFTER ENOLA GAY MISSION. Mido Multifort Superautomatic watch with automatic movement, serial #661479, with custom stainless steel bracelet engraved on one side "ENOLA GAY / First Atomic [arrow and flash] bombardment / Aug 6 / Hiroshima / 1945" and on the other "Tinian / 20 [insignia] / Bud / 509th / Composite / Group," image 1
CAPTAIN ROBERT LEWIS'S MIDO MULTIFORT WATCH WITH TRENCH ART CUFF BRACELET MADE AFTER ENOLA GAY MISSION. Mido Multifort Superautomatic watch with automatic movement, serial #661479, with custom stainless steel bracelet engraved on one side "ENOLA GAY / First Atomic [arrow and flash] bombardment / Aug 6 / Hiroshima / 1945" and on the other "Tinian / 20 [insignia] / Bud / 509th / Composite / Group," image 2
CAPTAIN ROBERT LEWIS'S MIDO MULTIFORT WATCH WITH TRENCH ART CUFF BRACELET MADE AFTER ENOLA GAY MISSION. Mido Multifort Superautomatic watch with automatic movement, serial #661479, with custom stainless steel bracelet engraved on one side "ENOLA GAY / First Atomic [arrow and flash] bombardment / Aug 6 / Hiroshima / 1945" and on the other "Tinian / 20 [insignia] / Bud / 509th / Composite / Group," image 3
CAPTAIN ROBERT LEWIS'S MIDO MULTIFORT WATCH WITH TRENCH ART CUFF BRACELET MADE AFTER ENOLA GAY MISSION. Mido Multifort Superautomatic watch with automatic movement, serial #661479, with custom stainless steel bracelet engraved on one side "ENOLA GAY / First Atomic [arrow and flash] bombardment / Aug 6 / Hiroshima / 1945" and on the other "Tinian / 20 [insignia] / Bud / 509th / Composite / Group," image 4
CAPTAIN ROBERT LEWIS'S MIDO MULTIFORT WATCH WITH TRENCH ART CUFF BRACELET MADE AFTER ENOLA GAY MISSION. Mido Multifort Superautomatic watch with automatic movement, serial #661479, with custom stainless steel bracelet engraved on one side "ENOLA GAY / First Atomic [arrow and flash] bombardment / Aug 6 / Hiroshima / 1945" and on the other "Tinian / 20 [insignia] / Bud / 509th / Composite / Group," image 5
CAPTAIN ROBERT LEWIS'S MIDO MULTIFORT WATCH WITH TRENCH ART CUFF BRACELET MADE AFTER ENOLA GAY MISSION. Mido Multifort Superautomatic watch with automatic movement, serial #661479, with custom stainless steel bracelet engraved on one side "ENOLA GAY / First Atomic [arrow and flash] bombardment / Aug 6 / Hiroshima / 1945" and on the other "Tinian / 20 [insignia] / Bud / 509th / Composite / Group," image 6
The 20th Century
Lot 196

CAPTAIN ROBERT LEWIS'S MIDO MULTIFORT WATCH WITH TRENCH ART CUFF BRACELET MADE AFTER ENOLA GAY MISSION.
Mido Multifort Superautomatic watch with automatic movement, serial #661479, with custom stainless steel bracelet engraved on one side "ENOLA GAY / First Atomic [arrow and flash] bombardment / Aug 6 / Hiroshima / 1945" and on the other "Tinian / 20 [insignia] / Bud / 509th / Composite / Group,"

21 November 2023, 10:00 EST
New York

US$50,000 - US$80,000

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CAPTAIN ROBERT LEWIS'S MIDO MULTIFORT WATCH WITH TRENCH ART CUFF BRACELET MADE AFTER ENOLA GAY MISSION.

Mido Multifort Superautomatic watch with automatic movement, serial #661479, with custom stainless steel bracelet engraved on one side "ENOLA GAY / First Atomic [arrow and flash] bombardment / Aug 6 / Hiroshima / 1945" and on the other "Tinian / 20 [insignia] / Bud / 509th / Composite / Group," and engraved on the underside "Capt. R.A. Lewis / Pilot O-668015." Dial tarnished, hands with some enamel loss. Watch currently running but accurate timekeeping not guaranteed. One pin loss but strap secure.

Captain Robert Lewis (1917-1983) was an Army Air Forces officer and test pilot who served as co-pilot of the Enola Gay during the mission to drop the atomic bomb known as "Little Boy" over Hiroshima. Lewis is most famous for having recorded a minute-by-minute log of the flight, the only detailed record made by any crew member that day (see lot 195), done at the request of a journalist who was supposed to accompany the crew but arrived too late to join.
The present item features a custom "trench art" watchband of stainless steel created for Lewis and celebrating the 509th Composite Group's service at Tinian and aboard the Enola Gay. A similar band was created for the watch of Enola Gay pilot Paul Tibbets, which is now in the National WWII Museum in New Orleans: that example also features Tinian on one side and Enola Gay on the other, with only minor variations in style that can be attributed to the nature of the watchband's construction. In his official portrait (see above) Lewis wears the present watch, the words "Enola Gay" just visible above the flash and the arrow.

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