Collection

Vintage Military and Naval Binoculars

The large aperture military binoculars of the Second World War era represent the peak of optical engineering in the twentieth century — instruments built to the most demanding specifications by the finest manufacturers in Germany, Japan, Britain, and the United States, and issued to the naval and anti-aircraft forces of every major combatant power.

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Japanese big eye naval binoculars, hand-polished with brass fittings, on tripod — Daniels Antiques

Vintage Military & Naval Binoculars

The large aperture binoculars built for the navies and anti-aircraft batteries of the Second World War represent a peak of optical engineering that has never quite been equaled. Made to military tolerances by the finest houses of the age, Carl Zeiss Jena, Leitz, and Schneider in Germany, Nikko, Toko, Fuji Meibo, and Nippon Kogaku in Japan, and Ross of London for the British Admiralty, they were instruments on which lives and battles depended. The range runs from the compact 8x60 deck glass and the iconic 10x80 Flak binocular to the great 25x150 big eye observation instruments, their twin objectives gathering light across miles of open sea.

Daniels Antiques has dealt in these instruments for over twenty years, with particular depth in German naval optics, from Carl Zeiss Jena Kriegsmarine glasses to post-war Cold War optics by Carl Zeiss, alongside the big eye naval binoculars of Japan by Nikko, Toko, and Fuji Meibo, and British instruments by Ross of London.

What sets our binoculars apart is the work that goes into them. Each begins with the search for an exceptional example, one whose original optics survive in perfect condition, and is then fully restored in our care: the instrument is disassembled, its optics cleaned and reset to factory settings, and the body hand-polished to a mirror finish, with care taken to retain the original markings and maker's stamps. The result performs as it was built to and presents as the object it deserves to be, faithful to its history and ready for display. Each may be viewed by appointment at our galleries in Aspen, Colorado, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.