Great thread.
My advice is get one you can easily read the time on.
I had a seiko pilots watch (which they sadly don't make any more), great watch but when I was doing the PPL I lost count of the number of time I misread the time by 5 minutes because the face was so cluttered with additional dials. I lost it and I'd love to get another.
I did buy a Breitling Navitimer fake for $40us. It kept time superbly and looked and felt like the real thing but the idiots put a unidirectional bezel on it and the slide rule wasn't printed correctly so you couldn't calaculate on it.
Best watch has got to be the Breitling Navitimer.