Antique & Vintage Military 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. Carl Zeiss Jena, Leitz, and Schneider in Germany; Nikko, Fuji Meibo, Toko, and Nippon Kogaku in Japan; Ross of London for the British Admiralty — each produced large aperture naval and anti-aircraft binoculars of extraordinary optical quality, the finest of which remain among the most capable optical instruments ever made. The field ranges from the compact Zeiss 8x60 deck-mounted naval glass and the iconic 10x80 Flak binocular to the enormous 25x150 shipboard observation instruments produced by Fuji Meibo on wartime patterns.

Daniels Antiques has been acquiring and dealing in antique and vintage military binoculars for over twenty years, with particular depth in German naval optics — including Zeiss Jena Kriegsmarine instruments and the postwar West German Bundesmarine DF 8x60 Zeiss Oberkochen series — as well as Japanese naval binoculars by Nikko, Toko, and Fuji Meibo, and British instruments by Ross of London. Each piece is selected for optical integrity, provenance, and historical significance, and described with reference to the standard specialist literature including Hans T. Seeger's Fernglaser und Fernrohre and Kevin K. Kuhne's The Large Aperture Binoculars. Pieces are available for viewing by appointment at our galleries in Aspen, Colorado and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.