Best Pilot watches ??
 

Hi,

I'm in need of a real aviator's watch... my other watches aren't suited for exact timing :-))

What do you find the best watch to wear during flights ? The Fortis one ? http://www.fortis-watch.com or are you more of a Breitling type ? And what type exactly and why ?

I don't like the breitlings to much.. it's a rodania interiour anyway (i always love to say that to breitling guys)

Besides most people are buying aviators watches to show off, i would like to have one to fly that reads very clear and has a good quality, reliable.. :uhoh:

Thanks

Wearing a real aviator's watch doesn't make you an aviator.

What a profound statement IRRenewal! Go on then Iceman, do tell us what DOES make an aviator? :D:ok:

The guy asks a simple question about a nice watch to buy for flying and gets a smart ass remark!

Sternone - if you want something nice to treat yourself but not spend a ton of cash, then the Citizen Skyhawk range are a good deal - RRP about £300. It has a 30 world city time selector, which is handy as it can be set to display UTC when the analog hands display local - if you're in another country (I was in Canada) then this is a good function for flight times in zulu.
Breitling are very nice, but rather surplus to requirement with the price tag.

i have the citizen sky hawk, black eagle.

couldnt be happier, UTC is displayed on the facia, and if i want to change timezones (every time zone is in memory) i just hold down 2 buttons on the left and the anologue time changes straight away. I swap to UTC when i jump in the aeroplane, and back to LMT when i clock off.

Simple and cost about $600AUS

The breitlings are nice, but ill leave them for travolta.

M

Aviators Watches:

Rule 1:
Don't rely on one battery powered timing device - the battery WILL go flat at an inconvenient time.

Personally I would (actually I have) invest in one of these:
http://www.transair.co.uk/images/sma...pwatchclip.jpg
along with one of these:
http://www.transair.co.uk/images/sma.../stopwatch.jpg
both available from a well known aviation supplier.

If you really want something to exercise your wrist then try the following (with mini Wiz-Wheels):
http://www.chase-durer.com/ima/w_usaftbirds/main.jpghttp://www.mens-watches-guide.com/im..._50th_anni.JPG
http://www.casio.co.uk/images/products/250/6617.jpghttp://www.creativewatch.co.uk/citiz...ch-220x160.jpg

Alternatively, something altogether more useful, (from someone who owns one of the above) - a watch that provides a practical backup to the most useful instruments a GA pilot has (compass & altimeter):
http://www.sailgb.com/pi/tn.aspx?w=3...VER303x400.jpg

Decide your budget / take your pick.

OC619

I use a simple Swatch, which I keep on UTC. 30 quid.

Not :cool:, but works. Exact, easy to read, date as an added bonus.

http://eu-shop.swatch.com/eshop/uk/e...ent/GB750.aspx

For anything requiring timing in seconds and minutes I use a separate stopwatch.

Something simple
 

Hi Sternone,

I have a Lorus.

It cost about AUD19 and claims to be waterproof – but it possibly isn’t.
My Lorus keeps time very accurately, like all quartz watches, and it has a large luminous analogue display with a sweep second hand that I can easily read in a dark cockpit. My Lorus has nothing else: no multi function digital display, no compass, no altimeter, no GPS, no EPIRB, no rotating bezel, calculator or circular ‘sly drool’, not even a circadian rhythm analyzer.

I’ve been flying for over thirty years so I guess my Lorus is a ‘real pilot’s watch’. And in some places I’ve worked raskals & armed gangs target watches, wallets and jewelry and these folk are welcome to have my Lorus.

Besides, I was told early on in my career that a pilot’s skill/experience/ability is inversely proportional to the speed that she taxys and the size of his wristwatch.

Cheers!

Pithblot

I have a Citizen Skyhawk Eco-Drive watch. (no battery) ;)

It has a mini-whizz wheel around the edge, dual time display, millions of time zones, countdown timer, stop watch, temperature display, two alarms... It's great! I can highly recommend it. :)

but will it get it right from this October onwards - when the US changes it's DST rules???

OC619

I have a Citizen Skyhawk which has a rechargeable battery using light energy absorbed from the face, it will work for 6 months with no light input. I am very pleased with it and the features work well in the cockpit and on business trips etc.

Rod1

I have a Chase Durer Pilot Commander Alarm - looks good and does the job bloody well - about 200 quid with exchange rate as it is, I paid about 270 a few years back. Only downside is that it IS fairly heavy when compared to a mate's Breitling I've worn in the past. But it's not an issue at all - it's not REALLY heavy!

http://www.chase-durer.com/ima/w_pilotalarm/main.jpg

http://www.chase-durer.com/features/..._features.aspx

tKF

Most stopwatches are no good for flying because they have a 60-minute stopwatch dial - the divisions are usually too close together to read.

This leaves only a small % of suitable stopwatches.

For something different, I would check out Traser. These have real tritium hands and markings and you can see them properly in the dark. I use this one (a mechanical one but astonishingly accurate, though not a stopwatch) but a stopwatch is here.

IMHO, most "pilot watches" are overpriced.

Watches with loads of functions, including digital stopwatches, I have always found too small (both buttons and displays) and too fiddly to be actually useful anywhere, especially in flight.

The most useful watch I had was a Sekonda that had a digital display as well as the main analog display. I left the digital display on UTC at all times - very handy. It cost about £25 in 2002, but broke a few months ago - I thought the battery had run out, but a new one didn't fix it. No amount of percussive maintenance would coax it back to life. ;)

So I got a very plain Citizen Eco-Drive (no battery to change :ok:). If I ever need one, I'll buy a big old stopwatch and a clip!

SD

ps - I can certainly recommend buying from the USA at the moment! :)

Well, how about the Seiko Pilot Magazine freebie and a cheap Russian stopwatch. Both either tell the time or measure it well within the required limits :)

Pose value of minus umpteen thousands though.

In short, the BIGGEST ;)

If you want to tell the time any cheap digital does a splendid job.

If you want to look cool get a complicated analogue with a spinny dial, top drawer goes to the ones with no numbers on - guarantees you cant read the time. Although they do serve a purpose in the pub and mark you out from the crowd as a dashing aviator.

So the answer is Breitling for the pub, Casio for the air. If you wear both you have a standby for when the battery goes flat on the readable one.

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. :-(

My Seiko ex RAF chronometer bought 15 years ago (I took the non-poxy webbing strap option and bought it with a chrome strap) is still going strong.

It is available now from Pulsar (same movement/appearance: just doesn't have a 24 hr dial) . I bought one from Daily Telegraph shop £50.00 ish last year.

Advantages of both: Black face, numbers instead of batons, lack of totally impractical twiddly calculator/whizzwheel, easy stopwatch and luminous digits that you could fry eggs on.

Disadvantages: small and insignificant: will not act as a totty magnet all crowding round you to ask if you are a pilot: does not disguise small willy.

Cusco;);)

Watches
 

I have a kickass Breitling. It was actually a gift because my girlfriend thought such a hot aviator should have a hot aviators watch.

The earlier post about real aviators don't need aviator watched is cr*p. I used to have a swatch watch but the hands fell off the first time I went inverted. It also serves as the perfect "I am a pilot" label when you're just about to make a move with the laydeez.

I always roll up my sleeves in the flying club ops room, regardless of the weather, to make sure everyone knows I have the best aviators watch money can buy. That look of envy from the instructors at my local FTO as I consult the watch whilst completing the tech log is simply worth every penny. They may have gold stripes and a blue book, but I have a watch which says "this guy is one of the best flyers in the world, and has the ability AND the cash to fly anything with wings"..

As they say, if you want to be the part you have to look the part....

I for one like the citizen series, i dont have the skyhawk or a watch like that, due to i like one watch for all purposes and the skyhawk will problem get some funny looks.

Ive got a stylish and sleek citizen watch, it does me fine!

I've got a Citizen Navihawk Blue Angels (NON Eco-Drive) sitting here never used (boxed, perfect cond) which I'm about to put on Ebay, if anyone's interested PM me with an offer - bought new for £129, my Cosmonaute arrived 3 weeks later (was originally down for a 6 month wait!) :ugh:).