The beginnings of these watches, also called B watches, deck watches or captain's watches, go back to the British Navy. In order to determine the exact position of the many ships in its worldwide naval fleet, it needed instruments to tell the time as accurately as possible. The famous British watchmaker John Harrison constructed the first marine chronometers at the beginning of the 18th century. These were large grandfather clocks that used special devices to compensate for fluctuations on deck. In 1753, Harrison made the first pocket watch, which was already quite accurate. Around 1790, Ferdinand Berthoud constructed a special sea pocket watch that was suspended in a carrying frame to compensate for the waves. In the following decades, not only the navy but also the emerging natural sciences demanded instruments that were as accurate as possible for measuring time. Only watches with an official certificate were allowed to be called observation watches. The reason is clear: after leaving port, the watches should always show the exact time for as long a period as possible. Only then could the location be accurately determined by means of time specifications, using the sextant and a clock showing the exact Greenwich time to calculate the difference between the two times and then determine the longitude.

STOWA starts manufacturing the Marine observation watch in 1939, one year after building its own company building. The characteristic of a classic observation watch is the very good readability. For this purpose, the dials were often completely covered with luminous material. To protect the watches, specially made wooden cases (often waterproof and shockproof) were used. Only 288 pieces of the original STOWA observation watch were built. Meanwhile, there are different sizes and functions.