Pilot's watches
 

Hello there
I'm new to this forum and actually this is my first post.
I am interested in aviation and watches and I am asking the following questions to get the right answers from each of you. If you were to have the PERFECT PILOT's watch, what would be the caracteristics? For example, a chronometer watch, color that pleases the eye etc.
Please give me your opinions (any opinion that might help a pilot in getting the perfect watch) as I am doing a research on this subject.

Breitling
 

hola A340x
xxx
The definitive "pilot watch" is the Breitling "Cosmonaute"... I have one...
Excellent timepiece, very accurate, many pilot functions (slide rule) on it.
Unfortunately extremely expensive.
xxx
Welcome to the forum, by the way...
:)
Happy contrails

"to get the right answers from each of you. ".

What ! from all 162,772 of us ? :eek:

if you are a pilot...be careful..

sometimes examiners have found that a pilots abilities may vary inversionally proportional to the size of his watch....:}

Breitling are marvellous time pieces, but honestly, how many of you have actually used the twisty slide rule bit in anger, or pulled the ELT aerial out?

If Mickey Mouse still has two hands that go round at the regulated rate, the watch does a perfectly adequate job.:)

Breitling are marvellous time pieces, but honestly, how many of you have actually used the twisty slide rule bit in anger, or pulled the ELT aerial out?

If Mickey Mouse still has two hands that go round at the regulated rate, the watch does a perfectly adequate job

Agree 100%.....BUT


The definitive "pilot watch" is the Breitling "Cosmonaute"...

Agree 100% ...No BUTs,IFs, or MAYBEs :ok:

I'm not really sure what use a 'pilot's watch' is these days.
I cannot concieve of any real-world situation when I am flying where I would break into a sweat and think 'Thank God I have the circular slide rule, chronographic, day, date, month facilities of the Breitling Navitimer strapped to my wrist...!'

To be honest, I've had to wait so long to afford my Breitling, with my fading eyesight at the grand old age of 50, I can't read the b****y thing anyway...:)

haha!
that qoute made my day :}

:hmm:
It's a bit like that old joke which goes something along the lines of.
'Gosh Inspector, how can you tell that the dead man, lying out there stark naked, was a pilot'?
'Easy, big watch, small penis'.
;)

Personally, one finds that a Rolex green Submariner does the job quite well and for some very peculiar reason, women seem to prefer divers to flyers. Make ot that what you will!:p

IMHO

Get yourself a watch with a clean readout - a dark face with large, luminous numerals and hands that mark the hour, minutes and seconds.

If you plan on marking up your logbook with UTC, then it might be an idea to have that option on it as well.

Some like it added as another hour hand like on the Torgoen T5 (shown below)

http://www.uhren-shop.org/images/pro....01.08.S02.jpg

or you could go for the T6 which has a flight computer bezel (which, trust me, you will never use!)
This watch is just too busy for my liking.

This is a T6:
http://www.uhren-web.com/images/Torg...02.S02_200.jpg

They have also brought out a T8 - it's a nice concept but I'm still out on it.

T8:
http://www.outdoorwatch.com/ProductI...1.02.S05-s.jpg

You could also go all digital.
The Casio Pro Trek range are good and I use one with a World Time feature as I am jumping zones a lot.

To be honest, a "pilot's" watch is just a gimmick. Just go with what you like and what suits your style.

I am a victim for watches though......

I have a T5 for flying
A Pro Trek for outdoor sports
A Suunto for running
An old retro Casio G-Shock that I drag out when I'm being manly and building something.
And an Omega Planet Ocean for formal wear. (It was a gift. I could never justify one when the IR is still undone!)

Pilot's watch
 

Total bollo#ks. Had a navitimer many moons ago, too big. A timex stop watch, a spin wheel! What else do you else do you want? Try to use a "so called watch with a spin wheel (aka Navitimer) with one hand when you need it and try and note down your calcs. All you need is a simple stop watch and spin wheel.

:hmm:

These big Breitlings are all very well when worn by a First Officer. Once one becomes a Captain you have to change wrists so that the punters can see through the cockpit door that the man in charge is a real pilot as he tenderly plays with the power levers.:p

merlinxx,

like i say i am not sure if you are a pilot...but if you are like others have said, you have enough of your time spent in the flying process there is little time to play with your watch...in VFR flying for every 10 seconds head should be outside the cockpit for 8 and in for 2...little difficult to have time for your watch...

and if IFR...no time for your watch...except to check the time in both instances...

aviate...navigate...communicate...thats it...:ok:

nowhere in there do i see anything about watches......:eek:

ticktockticktock...:}

Thank you for all the replies, but what I would like to concetrate on would not be a watch thatt has already been created (Breitling), I'm more concetrating on something custom.
For example: Square or round?
Metal or rubber?
etc

My only requirements are for a big hand and a little hand, and accurate to 5 mins or so per day, so that I can note down reasonably accurate brake-brake times.

My Cosmonaute is quite honestly the most (imho) beautiful timepiece I have ever had the pleasure to own. Makes a Rolex or Omega look mundane (again, imho).

Overkill for bimbling about in a 172? Absolutely, but certainly gets the ladies attention at the bar!

It also has the brightest luminescence on the hands that I have ever seen - in a dark room, you can find a light switch by it, it will illuminate a patch on the wall at a distance of around 4-5 inches. Impressive (although I'm probably being exposed to untold radiation levels) -althought the wife can spot me trying to sneak in to bed after a night out with the lads thanks to the beacon effect!.


As regards a (new) custom watch and features you'd want added it depends.

If you're using the watch for actual flying - then 2 hands which tell the time, and possibly something which shows UTC. That's pretty much all you need.

If you're using the watch as jewellery, then you can add the (never used) slide rule etc.

I personally prefer round watches unless they're digital, and metal, unless they're part of the design - plastic always looks cheap which isn't any use for the 2nd option ;)

Ultimately - you don't need anything other than a basic clock as a pilot watch.

(Although the Breitling Co-pilot looks great, but only fits the Aerospaces).

Actually - what might be fun (although no pilot would probably ever wear one), would be a watch where the face was mocked up like an altimeter dial, with the date in the pressure setting window. I suppose you could do one with an airspeed indicator also.

It's an interesting topic 'Pilot watches', is it not true that the wrist watch was invented for Pilots, therefore all wrist watches by definition are 'Pilot watches?'
I can't remember which pioneering Pilot it was, I seem to recall the name 'Cartier' who made a wrist watch for 'Santos Dumont', he could not take his pocket watch out to check the time because he required both hands to control his machine? Thus Cartier invented the wrist watch, although several different names seem to claim the same invention!
Then again, I'm probably talking ball@cks :\

Ok then......if ideas are what you are looking for then I would say you should aim for:

A simply-styled, digital readout watch with a square face that gives me the time and date where I am, the time and date at my destination and UTC time - there is absolutely no need for the watch to have a flight computer, as I have said before, it will never be used.

I like clear numerals and while traditional "digital" style ones are ok, a newer "computer" style font would be nice. Like the clocks you see as screensavers on PDAs or an iPhone.

For example: (apologies for my design skills!)

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...inal/watch.jpg

I would also like it to have a stopwatch and a countdown.
Elapsed flight-time would also be nice (separate to the stopwatch).

Pro Trek have a nice feature where the backlight comes on in low light conditions when the watch is tilted towards your face - I would like the option to turn that off if necessary.

A recurring alarm would also be necessary - a nice loud one that actually has the ability to wake a very tired pilot.

(If you want ideas on good screen layouts, have a look at the latest generation of dive computers - not dive watches though.)
Thanks