It may not matter to you, but a lot of people are into WWII history and have no interest in Vietnam. The problem with 1,940 reproductions being made isn't that it's too many, it's that it's another attempt to tie the watch to WWII by -- presumably -- new ownership of the company that isn't actually familiar with its history. They also make some claims about original records being destroyed in a fire but then refer to serial numbers from a sale to the military, so... that's shady, too.
Bottom line is while these things might not affect your opinion of the watch, I'm certain many people would see it differently, which is why I'm posting about it.
I don‘t know, but Ariel Adams wrote in his blog:“The Heritage Snow Star in steel a more modern Swiss ETA (not sure the reference, probably a Unitas or similar) hand-wound movement with 42 hours of power reserve). The steel mode is limited to 1,940 pieces. “
AllesI see what you mean now. I thought only the gold version was a hand wound but both were. ETA only sells to certain brands now (can't remember within which group the brands are). The older versions were ETA but this model uses a Sellita similar to the ETA 2824. so yes it is automatic.
A community member
Aug 14, 2018
I too was skeptical of the story like some previous posters. A little online search led to this Smithsonian page which seems to verify the existence of these barter kits, but not necessarily the time/place deployed (WWII vs Vietnam-era). The kit contents were different. Interestingly it also seems to confirm the Milus kit watch size as 4cm, which I thought was large for a vintage watch.
http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?view&dsort&date.slider&q=Escape%20and%20Evasion%20Kit
Too expensive for an unknown brand. I’m tired of ”limited editions” in the thousands. while You might not make 10,000 of a piece, 1950 isn’t limited and I’m sure you’ll be able to find them new five years from now. they justify a ridiculous price ($2950 msrp) by calling it a limited edition. Omega does this all the time and it annoys me with them too. Don’t get me wrong, I love Omega. Just not their limited editions of 2000 pieces.
I guess on a plain faced watch they may add something. But putting one on a watch with a beautiful face, like a GS Snowlfake, would be a crime against god and man.
Bunch of unnecessary stuff included in the package to jack up the price (cuff links?). I would prefer an extra mesh metal link than a nato strap since it's a dress watch.
Until more evidence is presented I'm going to have to call B.S. on the idea that there is a watch company called Milus Snow that has been in continuous, uninterrupted business since WWII, underground, with zero market awareness. This smells like one of those things where a Chinese watch company researches watch history and acquires a defunct brand, or at least where a company has gone out of business or been acquired and shut down, and is then "relaunched" decades later by people with no continuous connection with the original company. In fact, there are Swiss, German, and French brands like this, that for all practical purposes are just new, unrelated watch companies.
Edit: O.K., maybe I was wrong.
http://www.swisstime.ch/en-MILUS-m89.html
Milus, not Milus Snow. And Swiss.
But the company has no website that I can find. To wit:
http://www.milus.com
Eyb1This is registered with a German domain name reseller. {Edit: But it seems to be a legitimate company website.} There should be a dot-ch Swiss domain registered to Milus or its parent company. The milus.com domain is registered in Denmark, although the nameserver is is Switzerland.
The Wayback Machine shows content on milus.com that looks legitimate, although the site is currently dead. There is a moribund Twitter account @miluswatches. The linked FaceBook account is dead. The most recent YouTube upload on the account listed on the Wayback home page is from seven years ago.
I detect a slight aroma of rot around this company. Either that or it's a super-traditional Swiss watch company hidden in the hills where hobbits work away on watches oblivious of the outside world and marketing and the internet.