You don't need that, but it's perfectly legitimate to *want* that.


I'm sure that's true of most of us - but given that most of the pilot watches on Transair will cost somewhere between the cost of an hour in a C152, and an hour in a high-end twin, and are likely to last a decade or more, it's not realistically a major dent in the flying budget.

G

Will the AAIB now be making note of the pilots choice of watch during any incidents reports ?!?!? :ugh:

Brilliant thread drift here. Someone training for his PPL asks a simple question about which wristwatch to buy for flying and before you can say "Timex", the regulars get "wound up" and start arguing about cultural differences, history, you name it. Even human rights gets a mention. :D

If you want three opinions, ask a couple of pilots :p

Which Watch?
 

Down to the individual, of course. In my case I opted for an analogue watch with a black face and white luminous hands. Easy to read under all conditions. And a rotating bezel. I find it very convenient to just move the bezel to line up with the minute hand and then just read off the actual time at the next check point. It is a resin cased example and is still working fine some 10 years later. Battery life is about 3 years. Now there is probably a solar powered version available. Accuracy is about 5 seconds a month - good enough!

I would certainly endorse all the 'don't buy a fancy pilot watch' comments and become a poser...

RF

When flying a C152, especially on long legs with a headwind, I find a sundial is more than accurate enough. Not good for night flights though.

There is a version of that one, which goes something like:

Put 4 pilots on a desert island, and a year later you will have 4 pilot forums, each of which has 20 members under various nicknames, four pilot associations, and 4 splinter groups

:)

It might also prove that there is more than one way of doing flying in the correct way, something certain instructors, examiners and training organisations might not always recognise.

I opted for:

- a Traser with bi-directional bezel (a feature that was, to my surprise, fairly rare) and fabric strap, which I clip on the side of my kneeboard for navigation. Like Ringway Flyer, At every nav point, I rotate the bezel to be in front of the minutes hand. I can then see what was the time of my last nav point (which I write down later when I am serenely on my new track), and the time in minutes since that time (on the bezel). I have used a P6600 so far and I ordered an Extreme Sport Pro,which I think will take me a split second less to read.

- a Timex dual-tech sport watch on my wrist for extra time zones.

Waow factor wise... I'm fairly smug of the Traser and I would have enjoyed being offered it. :O

The reason why most bezels only go in one direction is for diving.

ie they will only increase you bottom time if disturbed.

Its really not worth explaining it all but if you see a watch only going one way its a diving watch in drag

Glad somebody mentioned these, especially a watchmaker :ok:

I have now seen a Christopher Ward watch in the flesh, they certainly do look the part and it appears that you are buying a quality product at a very fair price. ie one which reflects manufacturing cost with a reasonable markup,.

The mainstream Swiss watchmakers IMHO set ridiculous prices
to: -

A) Fund massive marketing campaigns.
B) Maintain exclusivity.


Anyway back on topic...... Does anyone here use a Christopher Ward for flying??

pilots watch
 

a Citezen navihawk world time Blue angels for show and an Argos £10.00 kitchen timer Buy Salter 4 Way Electronic Timer at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for Baking equipment.

modified with bit of velcro on the back, for attachment to the yoke, work for me

Christopher Ward
 

My watch is a Christopher Ward, think the model is Pilot Mark II. It's an automatic ie needs no battery and I've had it about nine months.

I bought it not specifically to fly with but because a watch expert friend recommended them as great quality timepieces for the price with a Swiss movement that is also used in much higher-priced models. I'm delighted with it. I'm told it will last a lifetime if the working parts are oiled every four years and it's not dropped from a great height!

The only flying consideration I had when buying it was that the dial is clear of clutter and easily read in the air. The design is based on the old WWII watches and the IWC Big Pilot Watches so it fits the bill as a pilot's watch without shouting about my passion for aviation.

As it's my only watch I do wear it for flying - which for me is strictly VFR in old aeroplanes. I also carry a cheap kitchen timer strapped to my kneeboard as a back-up stopwatch.

Lunchmaster

Hi all, new here and just came across this thread. As someone with more than a passing interest in watches, here are another couple of recommendations for your consideration

Citizen Eco-Drive Gents Stainless Steel Watch #BM6400-51E: Citizen: Amazon.co.uk: Watches

Citizen Eco-Drive Gents Stainless Steel Watch #BM6400-51E: Citizen: Amazon.co.uk: Watches

and
or if you fancy something mechanical, try Steinhart, available directly from the manufacturer and excellent VFM.

This is the 44mm Flieger on steel bracelet, (bracelet available separately by request), on an 8" wrist. The reason I mention wrist size, is that if you have small wrists a large watch may not fit properly, be very comfortable, and may not look good at at all.

http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/a...0068Medium.jpg

Or you may wish to try one of their diver models, like the Ocean 1 below.
http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/a...0078Medium.jpg

This one is a bit more than your budget though :)

http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/a...1424Medium.jpg

I personally love my Citizen Eco-Drive Skyhawk AT Titanium (Men's Citizen Skyhawk AT Titanium Alarm Chronograph Eco-Drive Watch (JY0010-50E) - £398.00 - WATCH SHOP.com™) but it's way OTT for practical use. Though I do use the slide-rule pretty much daily for simple maths - much to the amazement of my pupils.

I loved the Argos kitchen timer, though, I think I might buy one!

Tim

Just in passing, my junk email of the day shows a rather nice Seiko military derivative on sale at Transair for £108 - looks to be basically the ex-RAF one that is on my wrist with a bit of vintage styling and a more conventional leather strap.

G

I bought my Breitling Aerospace Titanium F56062 through a senior Breitling executive for a good price in 1995 and it served me well. It is identical to the one below and doesn't have the silly 'repetition minutes' logo or the ugly italic numerals of later models:


Then a year or so ago it developed a taste for battery replacement (£50-£70....) before it stopped working completely a month ago....:uhoh:

So, whilst in London I took it in for the posh watch shop to assess....

I had the diagnosis yesterday. £352.23 for a new movement (inlcuding £70 credited against the last battery change), £38.56 to exchange the hands as the new movement has a different spindle diameter, £130 for labour and £10 P&P....plus £106.16 VAT totalling £636.95...:eek:

I declined the opitional replacement of a slightly scratched crystal and slightly worn titanium nitride gold riders....that would have been an extra £165.75 + VAT.

And it'll take about 10 weeks to be repaired.....:confused:

It may have been better to send it to the Breitling UK service centre directly. It would come back like new and I don't think it would have cost that much. The lead time for service is about right, and much better than Omega Bienne, or Rolex.

Then again if you consider you've had it 16 years, thats only £40 per year to maintain and its probably worth more now than when you bought it....it will also look brand new if its had the Breitling polish! :ok:

I think I'd be strongly tempted after the repairs to sell it, buy a nice £200 Seiko, and then spend the rest on flying!

G

All these "top end" watches have the same problem. About three years after I bought my wife a very nice Omega the battery needed changing. I was told by the main dealer that this did not simply mean being changed, but Omega would wish to replace the hands as well!! Why? I foolishly allowed the watch to be sent away and it came back 8 weeks later with a bill for £200+. The jeweller told me that it was lucky it was an Omega and not another brand (I can't remember which one) as the time for servicing was 52 weeks!

Interestingly, when I took my old (25+ years) Omega Seamaster to my local jeweller for a new battery it cost £5. Either the manufacturer's approach to these things has changed with newer models or the local jeweller is more straight than the main dealer.

If you could design your own watch....
 

Texas Instruments has just released engineering samples of a watch that is based on their MSP430 family of MCUs, complete with a PC-based IDE so you can customise it any way you want.

EZ430-Chronos - Texas Instruments Embedded Processors Wiki

I am a professor of EE at a community College near Toronto. Occasionally I get requests for suggestions for capstone projects.

If anybody is interested in helping to design the 'perfect' digital watch for their needs, perhaps you would like to pass on a wish list to me and I will see if my senior students can build it for you. Alternatively, if you can program in C, you can do it yourself. My email is nw.johnson (.at.) ieee (.dot.) org.

It has two main digital readouts and five buttons. An accelerometer is built in, as well as an altimeter, but alas they do not have a pressure setting feature in the software that comes with it. You can also use it to change slides in powerpoint presentations!

It has a wireless link to a PC using one of three ISM bands so you can connect it to various other devices.

Unfortunately I can't undertake any more projects myself since I volunteer too much!

Hi Ve3 - I'm a (very) part time associate professor in aeronautics at a middle-ranking university in the UK. I have a permanent interest in "carry on" airborne instrumentation and also overseee a few Capstone projects annually, as well as trying to incorporate a few of those into real and publishable research.

Fancy talking offline about a bit of collaboration?

G

Another couple of mechanical alternatives are German manufacturers Damasko and Sinn who make a wide range of pilot inspired watches. They may not be the cheapest but they are designed to take alot more knocks, bumps, and be more scratch and dent resistant than your normal watch. Although not household names, both are highly regarded in terms of overall quality and VFM within the watch community.

Damasko - Uhrenmanufaktur - Regensburg/Barbing - Hersteller von mechanischen Armbanduhren.

Sinn-Spezialuhren

More affordable German inspired flieger designs come from Stowa ( historically one of the original companies who made the flieger or B-Uhr design watch ), it's nicely finished but demand exceeds supply on these so expect a 8 week delay from order.

Flieger - STOWA GmbH & Co.KG


or Archimede watches, typical flieger design and comes in a variety of sizes with even a left hand option.

ARCHIMEDE Pilot | Classic Pilots Watches | Automatic + Hand Wound | 4 Sizes 45/42/39/36 mm | Stainless Steel + Pure Titanium

"All these "top end" watches have the same problem. About three years after I bought my wife a very nice Omega the battery needed changing. I was told by the main dealer that this did not simply mean being changed, but Omega would wish to replace the hands as well!! Why? I foolishly allowed the watch to be sent away and it came back 8 weeks later with a bill for £200+. The jeweller told me that it was lucky it was an Omega and not another brand (I can't remember which one) as the time for servicing was 52 weeks!

Interestingly, when I took my old (25+ years) Omega Seamaster to my local jeweller for a new battery it cost £5. Either the manufacturer's approach to these things has changed with newer models or the local jeweller is more straight than the main dealer."

A watch isn't really top end if it needs a battery. Either get a real watch (mechanical) or get something that isn't pretending to be a mechanical watch with the associated inflated price.

Or get a cheap/mid-range watch with solar recharging (Citizen Eco-Drive) and get the best of both worlds...

Tim

Except you aren't getting the best of both worlds because it isn't a mechanical watch...

Objectively, what is good about a mechanical (auto winding) watch?

I used to have the Traser auto watch, which was excellent, but I cannot see the point in avoiding battery powered watches. Even the most expensive (e.g. £3000 IWC) ones are sufficiently inaccurate to require irritating resetting every week or few, and how many of us are stuck on an island for years at a time? The batteries seem to last a few years.

There is also a poor choice of automatic watches with a stopwatch function - well there seems to be below the "IWC" kind of price level anyway. Traser use the generic movements (e.g. Ronda) used by so many makers of Swiss "lifestyle" watches and their stopwatch (which I now have) is a quartz battery powered one. I am not suprised by this because a stopwatch, if used a lot, draws a lot of power out of the spring. I think the lifestyle watches get away with it because their owners rarely use the stopwatch :)

Please explain the inherent superiority of mechanical watches! They are less accurate. Is that a virtue? Although they don't have batteries which need changing they need a servicing every 3 to 5 years, so the watch if anything is likely to be away for longer. Automatics are also more expensive in many cases than their quartz equivalents.

I have a watch from Astro Avia. Unbenanntes Dokument Their watches aren't horrifically expensive, are easy to read with clear numbers and markings, and are comfortable to wear. I can't recommend them enough.

I'm totally with peterh337 and Justiciar - what's so superior about a mechanical watch, needing expensive servicing every few years and the time re-setting every week or two? My Citizen resets itself to the atomic clock every night, but its predecessor (also Citizen) didn't and was still accurate to within a couple of seconds per year - there's no mechanical watch in the world that can match that.

Sure, you get nice whizzy internals and a smooth sweeping second hand, plus a smug feeling as you contemplate your overdraft. But that's about it.

My 1860s gold pocket watch is a beautiful thing, and I love it very dearly - not least because it's been in the family since then. But I would never defend it as a timepiece...

Tim

A mechanical watch is steeped in tradition, skill, craftsmanship, ingenuity and character.
The making of a mechanical watch is an art form all of its own.
Quartz watches have their place (I have one). But the only proper watches are the ones handmade in Switzerland (and to an extent, Germany).

.... and is a triumph of marketing over substance in most cases. It is interesting when you look into it to find that the movements on many hugely expensive watches are the same as on much cheaper versions!

Hello!

How true! Ninety percent (or so) of all mechanical watches on the market - cheap and expensive - have movements of either ETA, Lemania or Valjoux. And guess who owns all those three brands? I think the name "Swatch" has already been mentioned...
Anyway, the only real difference between a "mechanical" and a "quartz" (digital displays aside) watch is the power source, either spring or electro-magnet. From there on, the same gears and pinions drive the same hands. A quartz watch with some complications (stopwatch, calendar, ...) is made of ninety five percent mechanical parts!

And regarding "pilot watches" in general: After 20+ years of commercial flying and instructing (and an occasional private flight in between) I swear that I have not looked at my wristwatch in flight more than ten times. On many days, I don't even bother to wear one. I really only need to look at the time to meet the passengers. And even then, there is the private cellphone in my left pocket and the company cellphone in my right pocket, both of which give me more accurate time than the best watch... (constantly updated through their network and/or GPS!) I flight, there are enough devices built into the aeroplane that display and record some sort of time. Plus my two cellphones and the two cellphones of the co pilot (or student) of course. And the iPads. And all of them glow in the dark, contrary to most watches after a day under the shirtsleeve...

But I must confess that I am not immune to this watch thing either... I even collect Swatches, although I have never worn one, some of which are really pretty and almost indestructible and very well suited for flying. Batteries last for several years and cost almost nothing to replace, so a Swatch with the battery replaced once per year will never let you down. And being mostly of plastic, you can leave them on when passing through security, a big plus in these days. (Maybe I should really start wearing them...)

All I really care for in a pilot watch is an uncluttered display for instantaneous readability. For this purpose, I wear a simple Fortis sometimes (which has the big disadvantage of every "mechanical" watch that you have to reset time and date every time if you wear it only occasionally) or a Traser (Quartz) with tritium hands that glow nicely in the dark. And should I ever need one as a status symbol, the all black Sinn 756 UTC would be among my top picks (Sinn Uhren: Modell 756 S UTC). With or without stopwatch dosen't matter at all.

Happy landings,
max

[QUOTE]And being mostly of plastic, you can leave them on when passing through security, a big plus in these days. (Maybe I should really start wearing them...)[QUOTE]

Maybe Swatch should get in to the belt and shoe making industries then!

Here's another vote for the Breitling Aerospace. 14 years old, three batteries and one full service - a great timepiece.

500 Above

It depends on what you want a watch for. If you want accuracy, then the built in clock in your phone is all you need. The reason you're buying a mechanical or automatic watch is that you enjoy the craftsmanship and the engineering that goes into such a design. Accuracy, even though they like to sell them on that, is at least for me not very important. One could argue that a souped up Ford Focus is as fast as a Porsche, but that doesn't really make them the same thing.

I'm a total watch snob and will freely and widely admit that I judge people on what they have on their wrists. I find most watch brands to be abhorrently ugly. Overworked and lacking in good design. What's worse - 99% of them don't make their own movements - they buy them from big companies like ETA (Swatch) etc and that's why they're all virtually the same. To this snob, only 5 watches pass my minimalistic design criteria. Unfortunately, they're almost all in the $10K+ range, so it'll have to wait until I've found a way to get my Aero Commander to run on water.;):ok:


Sarpaneva:
Sarpaneva Korona K2 Kaamos Automatic | World Watch Review

Panerai (one of the few who make their own movements):
http://www.panerai.com

Alain Silberstein. Whacky 80's design, but I love the simple chunky shapes:
Alain Silberstein - KRONO BAUHAUS II - KRONO BAUHAUS II KT 401 B - ?BLACK? | Worldtempus

Corum's Admirals Cup series in their simplest form are pretty clean:
Corum - Admiral's Cup - Admiral?s Cup Legend 42 | Worldtempus

Rado's re-release of their classic 70's DStar satisfies the anal minimalist in me:
Rado: Unique Swiss designer watches

The Ikepod has become a classic already:
Marc Newson’s Ikepod time « melange

I'm glad the OP solved his problem!

I used to be a watch freak. I bought all sorts, each more expensive than the last. What I really wanted was a Breitling - well, cause I was a pilot.

Finally, about 20 years ago I bought a Breitling. The leather strap rotted after three months (it seems I perspire nitric acid). I paid £750 for a stainless steel bracelet. That fell apart after a few weeks, but was promptly replaced under warranty.
Then the stopwatch bit stopped working. It went back several times for that, eventually spending best part of a year at Breitling. It still doesn't work, and I've given up.
It keeps nigh on perfect time - gaining maybe one or two seconds a month. It needs a new battery every two years (I fit it myself, under a fiver).

It's showing its age a bit, but it soldiers on, and is easy to read. I reckon it'll last longer than I do.
I've never used the calculator ring in anger.

Really? I use mine all the time; e.g. in Sainsbury's yesterday (if porridge sachets come in packs of 8 or 14, with special offers if you buy two packs of 8, which is cheaper per packet...? that sort of thing). Takes seconds and saves pennies...

Tim

Watch rage
 

Many of my colleagues go for the big watch lots of features etc. I bought a Seiko analogue no frills watch in 1988 from John Lewis that still works 100% having only consumed 1, yes 1 battery.
Many of my Rolex etc toting colleagues regularly poke fun at my £80 marvel. I ask them the time, they reply, I check my Seiko and reply correct! Works every time. When flying I always carry a spare and a torch and a.........

GGR

Pilot watch
 

This is something that I have never really understood: pilot watches. I have a breathing but never use it when flying. Actually I don't use any watches when flying! I see ads for IWC, Brentling with fancy planes behind them, but honestly when was the last time anyone really used a watch while flying?
Remy

I used not to wear a watch - I'll check my mobile if I need the time. Since learning to fly in an aircraft with a non-functional clock, I bought myself a digital Casio watch for £11 in the sales.

I'd be absolutely fascinated to hear what you make of this. Don't hold any punches. I'm fairly thick skinned.