All Quiet on the Western Front

An Alpina pocket watch plays a prominent role in a new German-language film adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” the 1929 World War I novel by ...

As for the “All Quiet” pocket watch, Mr. He added that he felt that a pocket watch could capture the tragedy of those last minutes for the film, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September. “It’s all about the details.” “For the entire Swiss watchmaking industry, the First World War represented troubled times. “You can see that these are young men who were sons, who had families, and they were just thrown onto the battlefield to die,” David Hoffmann, the property master for the movie, said in a recent phone interview. It’s a fleeting moment of humanity and a rare respite in the final, brutal moments of the film.