WristWatch Selection
 

Searching this forum for the word "watch" is a dangerous task, so for those clocks you wear on your arm I'll refer to them as "wristwatch" for future generations of searchers :)

I'm looking to get a WristWatch for flying, and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. I'm currently flying smaller, unpressurized aircraft, and thought it would be a neat toy to get the Casio PAG40-3V Pathfinder, but it's not really designed for it.

Any suggestions? What do you use?

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Re: WristWatch Selection
 

Good point!

I'm looking for anything between $100-300US, and I don't care about "bling factor" (I'm not wearing it to impress), so functionality is at a premium. I don't put a lot of weight in the "built-in-flight-computer" function but I don't actively dislike it :)

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bugger. I just forked out 70quid for a watch as I was getting a bit of banter about not having one on my conversion course, all mine does is tell the time :(

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Try here:

NAWCC Bulletin Board

All your horological questions can be answered there, with the exception of "how much is my old clock worth".

YS

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Why not make a list of your essential requirements, tick Yes or No, and move from there?
1 100 % accuracy has to be quartz then or radio signal
2. Water resistant to what depth
3. Digital, analogue or both
4. Luminous? chemical or electrical
5. Stopwatch mine has a 48 hour stopwatch
6. Alarm could you hear it in a cockpit (no)
7. Rotary slide rule on bezel
8. If quartz will it be battery, wrist movement or solar powered?
9. What else do you need to take into account?

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The Citizen EcoDrive solar-powered watches are very nice -- multiple time zones, timers, alarms, water-resistant... There are several variations, so you should be able to find one you like.

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I never thought I would find myself replying to a watch thread!:D

But for me, the most important feature is the ability to switch between local time and GMT, and have these both shown in the 24hr style. If you're flying in the UK then fine; if you are flying somewhere where the time difference is, say 5 hours, or worse, 4 1/2, it really helps to be able to switch over to GMT as you get in the cockpit, and back as you head for the crew bus. I believe some watches even have several time zones....mine doesn't but it would be handy.

This usually means buying digital, and $100 is plenty unless you fancy getting mugged on your stopovers!

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Then I think you need to reevaluate this whole pilot thing. :uhoh:

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weasello

I've recently acquired a Tissot Navigator. It's replaced a Citizen Navihawk.

None of the Citizen world timers sold in Aus will display CST (central standard time) as all the time zones are UTC + whole hours and CST is +9 1/2 hours.

The Tissot does this. It has 150 cities pre loaded, and one can user create cities in an appropriate time zone. It has a touch screen used to access any of the multiple (count down timer, chrono, date, alarm x 2, world time, local time) functions available.

A brief press of the crown, then a tap on the appropriate part of the screen, and, voila.

One can select up to 4 time zones to be readily selectible on the world time section. For my operations I have BNE, ADL, PER & UTC. Each place can have daylight savings start & finish programmed to automatically display. Each world place can easily be swapped for the home zone, which then becomes one of the world zone places selected.

I have analogue hands set to home zone (where I am at the time) and UTC in the digital display. But there are several different choices.

~ AUD$690.00

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Just bought one of these :

http://www.transair.co.uk/product4.a...roduct_ID=3504

There may be more functional watches around but this is a brand new model.

I just figured that Seiko make good tough reliable watches so it may last me for 20+ years or so...

Seiko website RRP is 295GBP. I got mine in Hong Kong for 165GBP so I would shop around.

B/R

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I have a Citizen Eco-Drive Skyhawk Titanium. One of its dials is permanently 24H UTC. It also converts between timezones easily.

I used to hate big heavy watches, but being titanium, it is great (@£250)

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But don't buy a solar powered watch if you've just started a job as a night freight pilot - as a course mate of mine did. You will constantly asking the other guy on the course what the time is!

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Hey check out the Tissot T-Touch. A really nice watch with the features you're lookin for.

Cheers, T=

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DanWTL

The Citizen Eco-Drive is solar powered, but can go 300 days without light, and the dials still all work at night

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Ask around as to how many long time professional pilots have ever used the circular confuser on a watch. Very few I would think.

You need one that is accurate, tells the time, has a couple of time zones and it's useful if it lights up as well. You can find that for 40 - 50 pounds and not look like a wannabee.

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I have a Breitling Cosomnaut. Cos it looks good in tha ads and makes you a better pilot, innit?

And, it's great when someone asks you the time as it takes about 5 minutes to work it out.

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buy a cheap csio and when it needs a battery through it away and buy another I have one for about $30 us that has every time zone and abut 5-6 othr funchions and if I loose it or robed I don't care. Works great, has a light and never breaks down. Took my Tissot to get cleaned and it cost me about $100 us
Casio is the way to go
Tailwinds

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Not true Capt Claret,

Unlike the other World Timers which suffer the problem with CST, the Citizen Eco Drive World Timer I have (that I can't remember the model name of) has an analogue face which is in no way connected to its digital time, so you can set the analogue to any time you please (CST for example) and have the digital for UTC. The digital part also has the standard Citizen world time zones.

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Casio Waveceptor. Cost about £80 UK, radio controlled (not sure about US coverage), battery/solar powered, no crap around the edges (has anyone ever used a slide rule since the ground exams, let alone one on a watch?). Dogs bollocks (that means good in the UK).

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I've worn the same Seiko for years (never lost more than about a second a month!!) and keep a $10 Casio digital for the riskier neighbourhoods....

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Maybe we should begin an 'own' watches gallery? :)

http://uk.geocities.com/[email protected]/Watches.JPG

On the left, my flying watch: my trusty Casio of 20 years, model DW 206, double time, stopwatch, and light... and been used all over the world flying and diving (200M water resistant). Just fantastic and noone wants to nick it! Original price about £22 from what I can remember.

On the right, my look smarter watch: really looks the business, chronograph (whatever that means) keeps the BEST time of any watch I have ever had, less than a second a month, stopwatch, date, water resistant to 50M, and tachymetre for those testing times measuring speed of service at the bar. And several women have spontaneously said 'Nice watch'... No, I am NOT kidding!! And that's good enough for me! Price £9.99 from Lidls.

The markups on designer watches are hideous; no need to spend lots of cash.

PS In a past life I used to teach scuba diving. If you are planning to buy a watch to use for diving too, make sure it is 200M water resistant. 50M is for shower, swimming; 100M is for skindiving; 200M is for airbreathing diving, not for deeper than 50M that requires mixed gas. Don't let a shop assistant tell you otherwise!

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AerocatS2A

Interesting.

Mrs C has a thing for shoes, as do many women, and can't walk past too many shoe shops without just popping in for a quick look.

I suffer a similar trait, though my bent is watches, and hence often pop into jewlery stores and ask much the same question; "I'm looking for a world timer that will show CST or has analogue hands independant of the digital time".

The question seems quite succinct to me, but boy, do I get some vacant looks from the so called, sales people. Even the Watch & Clock shop in DRW says Citizen don't make what I want, which is pretty much what you have.

ps, not doubting you for a second, just relaying the hassles and attempts.

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Capt Claret,
The model I have is a Captain Sky. I used to live in Darwin so I'm familiar with the problem you've had with Citizen watches!

My wife worked at a jewellery store and bought it for me for a Xmas present. By sheer coincidence she happened to get the one Citizen watch which would be useful in the NT.

P.S. there is a work around for the other world timers with the intergrated digital/analogue display. One of the steps to setting up the watch is to set the analogue display to UTC, if you set it for 12:30 instead of 12:00 then the analogue will be a 1/2 hour advanced from the digital display. Then if you set the analogue for UTC + 9 it will show UTC + 9 1/2. Unfortunately that means that it will be a half hour out from all the other time zones as well.

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I felt the computer dials were pure bling so got the Torgoen T5 with the 4th large hand showing UTC. About $80 from Marv Golden. I don't recommend it: The problem is the 24hr hand is permanently geared to the 12hr hands, so whenever you adjust the latter at your new destination ( = often) you also have to reset the 24hr hand and that is far too fiddly. Maybe the Torgoen T4 (internal 24 bezel) is better?
There are some German-sourced watches similar style with 4 concentric hands branded Zeppelin, Junkers etc rather more exp but different.
http://www.torgoen.com/zulutime.htm
Lets know how you get on.

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well gerund, it is amazing in which threads your seem to pop up in...

if i saw you as my dive master i would demand to see your original certificate as i have heard it is amazing what one can do with a good colour copier these days!

does your time piece keep time in africa too, or has time also been stolen or broken by the locals?

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Quite frankly, the choice for pilots in quite obvious...get a Breitling.
Now, if you can't find a real one inexpensively (mine came from the FRA duty-free, aircrew/discontinued model discounts thrown in) then have a look at the knockoffs.
A friend just bought one in TIP, quite spiffy it is...and keeps better time than my real one does.:( :yuk:

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.. gee, now I feel real inadequate ... always used the digital $5 dollar special for flying ... never had one which lost/gained more than a second or so a month ... and I never worried too much when I left them in hotels rushing for the early morning cab ....

Different matter in the olden days with clockwork machines .. but, with the digital things, does it really matter much anymore ? .. except for the girl one is trying to impress over the dinner table .. and, for that worthy need, one can pay a few dollars more for the fake high-end watch ... the girls probably could tell the difference but I never could ...

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I've been flying for 49 years now. I am still using the very first quartz Seiko that I ever saw. It is very accurate and I bought it in Masirah in 1975 for about £15.

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I have to agree with 411, I've had a Breitling Aerospace for 7 odd years, it's as tough as nails,doesn't show wear and tear very well and is fairly understated. It's got another time zone for work (if the clock in the plane isn't working).More importantly it has an alarm clock so when the hotel neglects to give you a wake up call, you will not have to suffer the embarassment of being the last one on the crew bus. I'm not sure about the fake stuff, I bought a Rorex in Beijing, it was very nice, but felt I was the fake.... by trying to fool people.

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I use the Torgoen T5 - had a T6 but it was so cluttered that it was just a pain.
The T5 has UTC and a nice, clear display.

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Don't buy a proper Rolex. Everyone will ask you if it's real so you might as well buy a pretend one and spend the rest on a Breitling. The Aerospace Chronometer is very good, although I daren't wear it for work.

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For a "Posh" watch have a Brietling Aerospace. But if I'd pissed away a fortune on a type rating I'd have a more useful Timex Expedition. Clear, un-amiguous dial, waterproof, lights up at night, good time keeping and £14.50 in Argos.

:cool:

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I used to use the Citizen Wingman. Only flaw was no light. This was a problem when I did night freight.

Now I wear a nice Casio Baby G Gms watch. It doesn't look mega obvious pilot watch. Metal band. Solar powered as well as battery. 2 time zones. Digital is separate from analogue. Got a light.
Tough and water resistant. It didn't cost the earth and no one wants to nick it.

I wanted to get the Tissot "Touch" but it was just a tad too wide for my wrist.

One guy at work just uses his heart rate monitor watch. Works just fine he reckons.

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For flying I still use the Seiko military I was issued and the Queen forgot to ask for it back - that's for flying. Although the stopwatch minute hand has at some point jumped forward one tick and I have to remember to delete a minute, otherwise it's still incredibly reliable and accurate. I wear it on a velcro strap, and my personal habit is to strap it onto something in the cockpit in front of me in the air. (I still wish they'd put a 1hr stopwatch instead of 30 minutes on the thing 'though).

For formal wear, I have several (sadly the Su27 one I got given by some Russian colleages broke), but my favourite is a one-off. containing a fragment of Dresden Cathedral - presented to me as a speaker at a Test Pilots conference in Bavaria about 1999. (Wyvern was there too as a speaker, but no idea if he still wears his.)

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c4...eer/img004.jpghttp://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c4...eer/img005.jpg

Depending upon mood, I generally wear one or the other for the office.

G

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I use, as the other poster mentioned, a cheap Timex Expedition watch. It has an easy to read digital display, a great backlight (Indiglo), has a stopwatch, is waterproof, has 3 alarms settings, dual time zones, a countdown timer ... and most important it's accurate.

Is it just me, or do some people just wear a Brietling to make them appear like they are some sort of hot shot professional pilot!? Pfttt to that.

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Genghis,

There is a way of resetting the minute hand for your stopwatch, although it doesn't immediately spring to mind. It's some combination of button pushes. A Seiko dealer should be able to help.

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I shall go and ask, the battery went flat yesterday anyway, so I need to go and find a Seiko dealer for it's 3-yearly recharge.

G

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Why do you need a special wristwatch for flying? If you actually use it WHILE flying I'm interested to know for what? (besides just checking the actual time and figuring out if your girlfriend at home is still awake so you can call her...)

I do not have a wristwatch at all, but I feel still perfectly comfortable flying a jet...

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Personally I need a very clear, accurate and reliable watch with a stopwatch. Like many people, I wear that same watch much of the rest of the time also.

G