Watches.
 

So Saab and WildDart, Citizen it is.
I've had military-issue Omegas and Seikos, damaged and had 'em replaced.
I've had a Breitling (stolen) and a Tag-Heuer present that lasted just two years and gave up.
The repair bill for the Tag was £200+ ( needed a new special gizmo that only Tag knew the expensive reason for !)
So i saw a Citizen Eco-Drive in an old Argos catalogue for 50 quid - black face, day and date, great luminous hands and numbers. Wow, four for the price of a repair bill !
I've had the Citizen now for 4+ years and no problems, but then, so what ? Just buy another !
I now also own its "posher" brother, an Eco-Drive Chronometer, just for Saturday nights.
How much ? 80quid ! -and both are the most accurate I've ever had.
Yeh, Citizen it is.
Rgds, Sleeve. :ok:
Oh, 18greens, :-
>BTW all you smuggies with the light powered citizens, mine stopped working after three years, just stopped, no reason, no amount of warming it under million candella lamps has persuaded it to work again. :-(<
- must've been all that night Charter. Never got a chance to catch up !!

If you do want to spend money what about these pieces of lovely lovelyness that aren't Breitlings .

An Anonimo Militaire:
http://mytimesquare.net/cat_images/c...787787fly1.jpg

or an Azimuth Bombadier III -so much less obvious than IWC
http://www.azimuthwatch.com/azimutha...duct/15_1b.jpg

or a Mono-Pusher Rattrapante (you have to buy that one for the name alone)

http://www.azimuthwatch.com/azimutha...duct/31_1b.jpg

and a classic Bell and Ross
http://mytimesquare.net/cat_images/4...ntage123_1.jpg

I have an old Breitling Cosmonaute.

It's stainless steel, has a manual mechanism and no date

It is not as accurate as a £10 quartz, since it loses a few minutes per month.

It doesn't look as cool as some of the digital watches an has a 24 hour face, which isn't everyone's idea of a good game.

But boy, oh boy, it has class and is a fine instrument.

And as the name suggests, it isn't a pilot's watch - it came from Project Mercury for those old enough to remember.

Omega Speedmaster Automatic or Professional. First watch on the Moon as worn by all NASA Astronauts.

http://image.www.rakuten.co.jp/bluek...591324067.jpeg

Watches
 

Hi Sternone,

Most so-called pilot watches, with all those extra functions that you will never use, are expensive rubbish, fit only for the club poseur. In fact the average cheap diver's watch from the scuba shop is a much better pilot's watch than almost any of the £130+ pilot's watches. The thing you need most is an accurate watch with a large, clear, uncluttered face that is easy to read in a vibrating aeroplane. That rotating bezel on the diver watch can be useful as well. For PPL (daytime VFR) you don't need a stopwatch or illuminated face anyway. Cheap, quartz watches can be very accurate.

Also, take a look at the German pilot watches from 'Werner's Flying Watches' on-line. They are a fraction of the price of the Breitlings and Fortis's and vastly more practical than the over-complex watches you get from Transair et al that you will be unable to read in flight. At least most of them have a sweep second hand with fly-back re-set.

Broomstick.

Got one of these..
http://www.transair.co.uk/images/sma...pwatchclip.jpg
and these...
http://www.transair.co.uk/images/sma.../stopwatch.jpg

but also have one of these...
http://www.mens-watches-guide.com/im..._50th_anni.JPG

IMHO the navitimer is fantastic. OK, it may be a bit flash for some but as a timepiece its unsurpassed.

Just my 2pworth

Spamcan

Proving beyond all doubt that there are two Bs in Breitling -
the one at the start, and the one before the 'ling'.

The minute dial on the navitimer is genuinely useful - I love it for Freda check intervals :) And the cosmo came in handy on a recent flight to singapore - all the way in the dark so no idea if it was night/morning after I'd changed to Sing time, and I do use the whizz wheel as a gross error check on my (dodgy) mental arithmetic quite a bit (although it would be nice if it had ltr/kg/usg conversions but hey ho).

So not just for show - they do actually work (occasionally)!

First watch on the Moon as worn by all NASA Astronauts.

First watch on the moon maybe, worn by all astronauts I don't think.

http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=4034

Rolex Explorer Ii
 

Buy a used 5-year old Rolex Explorer II...use it for the next 10 years and sell it for double the price you bought it. Works the same for Submariner, GMT-master and Daytona. Trust me, my best friend is a Rolex dealer. But don't buy one when you drive a cheap car...people will think it's fake!:ugh:

I don't believe you need to spend a great deal of cash so you can pose around the local club or pub. Use the money saved to buy some flight time instead. Learn aerobatics, get a new type rating etc etc.

If you really must spend a fortune...DO NOT buy a Fortis...They are expensive junk. My mate has simply given up on his and bought a Breitling. The Fortis "Space Watch" has simply fallen apart on several occasions and appears to be less reliable than the shuttles external fuel tank foam cladding.

It may work in zero gravity but can't hack it here on the surface!

I like my Citizen Nighthawk in black. Looks great, has usefull UTC hand and a flight comp. :ok: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...V67S8A727TWAR2

Fortis to Breitling
 

Fortis are :mad: terrible, at least mine was and I am the friend Sicknote mentions below.

The first problem I had was the GMT hand would snag on the second hand, which made the watch stop. After that had been repaired I had about two weeks without problem and then started to note that the GMT hand would lose about two hours every day (as a GA pilot learning to fly instrument, I do actually use the GMT hand to get the time when communicating with ATC so that was just plain unsafe). It is now sat on my desk with a repaired GMT hand but now the hour hand has become disconnected and just swings around on its own. I may get it repaired again but I'm in no hurry. It is a shame because the Fortis GMT Chronometer Automatic, the model I have, is a damn useful pilot's watch, it looks great and has all the functionality we could ever want.

In disgust I bought a Breitling Airwolf, which works just grand. It looks cool and is a lot lighter than the B1 it replaced. It also has night vision compliant LCD display lights, which will come in very handy when flying a Cessna 172XP ;) I like the slide rule bezel although must confess to forgetting how to use my E6B after I got PPL - hat off to Slopey on that one.

Looks like a Pilot's Watch. Cheap as chips...eBay £0.01p plus postage 49mm face
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k3...Picture2-1.jpg

got a tissot 1853,tactile screen..kinda touch screen.did helped me sometimes even not a specific aviator clockie.
it got its tactile compass...meteo(hpa),thermo,altimeter(m)...and the magic chrono.

have a look at their website www.tissot.ch

For those of you who may be interested in the Citizen Eco-Drive system;

Citizen Eco-Drive watches use the simplest, yet most technically advanced power generating and storage system in the Watch Manufacturing Industry. A Solar conversion panel and energy cell (battery) are the power provider for these Quartz Watches. Eco-Drive's ability to use light from any source to generate electrical power means that the supply is limitless and free. The absence of any added complex power generating machinery that would require additional upkeep is another big advantage.

My Skyhawk works very well. The Battery charge indicator has never moved off “full” which equals six months of charge. The charge indicator is not fitted to the smaller units, but the system works the same.

Rod1

I wear a cheap watch with a minute hand big enough to read minutes, and for when I'm going to be flying IFR and might want to do timed turns then I have a £5 Argos digital stop watch with big numbers and big buttons.

What about a heavily discounted Seiko?
 

PLenty of heavily discounted brand-new Seikos on ebay. Check out Hong Kong and Singapore sellers with good feedback. My most recent chrono sells for £300 in the High Street but mine cost £62 and arrived by courier in 2 days! Good luck anyway.bm:D

I rather like my affordable Lacher....Euro 189
http://www.laco.de/flieger/praezision.aspx
http://www.laco.de/Produktbilder/861177.jpg

I have the Citizen Ecodrive Skyhawk, which my beleoved bought me for Christmas about 5 years ago and it is brilliant.

It's only drawback is that you have to change the Daylight Saving Time (on or off) for every time zone location twice a year and that takes about 10-15 mins.

I have a smallish, neatish, watch made by Wenger, who make Swiss army knives. It's dual time, has a rotating bezel, and has large white numbers on a black face, so easy to read in poor light. This means it looks like a ladies pilots' watch, even though it isn't officially. I bought it cheap on ebay years and years ago. And since pilots' watches for women seem to be non-existent, I rather like it.

But since only 6% of PPLs are female, most of you won't be remotely interested, so feel free to ignore this post.