WWII German Navy Kriegsmarine 7x50 Zeiss BLC U - BOAT Binoculars. Optics.
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:49977338 |
A beautiful set of Zeiss WWII BLC 7x50 U-boat binoculars with a very rare early serial number. If you are an aficionado of these binoculars, and have read Hans Seeger’s famous book on the subject, you will already know that (quoting from Seeger’s book)...” the serial numbering of these binoculars is unusual and not consistent. Although the numbering of the first type runs from about 2108901 to 2194600, in 1943 a low serial number range for U-Boat 7X50 binoculars was begun. Thus,... in 1943 the numbering of U-Boat binoculars began at 38300 to end at approximately 69150 in 1945.” I have handled a number of these binoculars over the years and all of them were in the later war 5 or 6 number range. This is the first pair I have ever seen in the earlier high number range. This virtually guarantees that they were actually issued to a U-boat crew. The rubber components are original and intact with the small amount of crazing one would expect. The Benutzer cap works fine. The strap is the correct heavy gauge brownish-black leather issued with these binoculars - heavier than regular german army binoculars. The binoculars were professionally serviced by the British firm Optrep, the only people I trusted to carry out a service on binoculars this rare. The optics are now crystal clear - about as close to optically perfect as you can get with these. The special interior focusing screws located beneath the rubber shrouds work as they should and are set at neutral. There is no fog, no mildew, no damage to the lenses, no double image, no chips to the prisms inside. The lenses have a slight bluish tint when held in a certain light - you do not see this when looking through them. If you want to know what it was like to look through a pair of these from the conning tower of a U-boat during WWII, then these are what you want. All binoculars need to be serviced in time. It’s no fun having a pair of super rare binoculars if they don’t do what they are supposed to do. These are ready to be used, and they should be used. They are some of the finest optics ever made and arguable the best to come out of WWII. The exterior finish is black. I was told that if these binoculars were returned to Zeiss during the war for service, the pea-green paint most commonly found was removed and they were painted black. I do not know if that is true but the paint on these is not sloppily applied. Whoever did this did it a very long time ago - a lot of it has worn away - and it was done when the lenses were not in place as you can see from the finish between the objective lens rubbers and the lenses themselves. I hate to let these go but I don’t live in a place where I can use them the way they deserve to be used. I hope they will find a good home. The auction starts at .99c !
