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Concealed wired microphone
The Hanhart wristwatch microphone, also known as the Handhart spy watch,
is a sensitive high-impedance crystal microphone, disguised
as a regular wristwatch, developed around 1951 by watch maker
Hanhart in Gütenbach (Germany).
It was first used in 1951 with the Protona Minifon Mi-51,
and was later adopted by various other manufacturers
and intelligence services.
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The device looks like a regular luxury watch with built-in chronograph,
but the hands are not moving and neither the crown nor the push-buttons are
functional. Inside the device
is not a clockwork, but a high-impedance crystal
microphone that is sensitive enough to pick up any sound.
At the left side is a thick shielded cable that guides the sound
from the microphone to a concealed recording device or a
transmitter that is hidden elsewhere on the body.
The device must be worn on the left wrist, so that its cable is hidden
from view by the sleeve of a blouse or coat.
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The Hanhart wristwatch microphone saw many applications.
Although it was advertised as a microphone for a dictation recorder,
it was intended for covertly recording conversations, such as with a
Protona Minifon Mi-51 wire recorder
— one of the first minature audio recording devices.
It was also used with later Minifon recorders,
and even when Protona went bankrupt in 1967, the Hanhart
microphone remained in production and was used with a variety of
other brands.
During the Cold War, the Hanhart microphone
was used extensively by
law enforcement and intelligence agencies
for covertly recording conversations and gather incriminating evidence.
Rather than connecting it to a recorder, it was often used in combination
with a concealed transmitter, as this allowed the conversation to be
monitored and recorded at a nearby listening post.
In fact, it became so popular with the US
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
that it is sometimes erroneously called a CIA spy watch.
Another application of the microphone is its use in surveillance and in
protection of VIPs, in which case it is connected to the transmitter
of a covert radio system.
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The watch microphone was so popular with the CIA,
that in his book Ultimate Spy,
Keith Melton introduces it as a CIA wristwatch microphone
[1 p.10]. Alexsandr Ogorodnik, codenamed Trigon, was a Russian diplomat
who had been spying for the CIA since 1974. In 1975 he was relocated
to Moscow where he had obtained a key position at the American Department
of the Soviet Foreign Ministry. His CIA case officer was
Martha Peterson,
a young woman who worked at the embassy.
On 15 July 1977, just after making a drop for Ogorodnik, Peterson was
arrested by the KGB
and asked to be visited by a US embassy representative.
When the representative arrived, the KGB noticed that the man wore two
watches. The one on the left was a concealed microphone and he had forgotten
to take off his real watch. Protected by her diplomatic immunity, Peterson
was released but saw her diplomatic status revoked and was expelled from the USSR.
Whilst being interrogated by the KGB,
Ogorodnik committed suicide by taking
his CIA-supplied L-Pill
[1 p.61].
➤ More about Martha Peterson's arrest
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Wristwatch microphone on this website
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Tuesday 15 September 2015. Last changed: Wednesday, 26 November 2025 - 07:56 CET.
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