I was window shopping the watch stores here in Cologne today. I saw a few I liked. I saw a few whose asking price exceeds the value of both of my planes - together! But after all was said and done, I'm still happy with my basic one, with an easy to read face, which costs about the same as two hours of flying time.

Wow! How would you ever know if a watch like that was working or not???:eek:


MJ:ok:

:O And if you can work out your fuel requirement and calculate your denisity altitude using that-built in whizwheel (without using a microscope), you will get instant ATPL theory credit!

Casio G-Shock GW3500
 

Check out the Casio G-Shock GW3500 or GW2500.

It can display three time zones simultaneously. I have local time on the main dial, UTC on the LCD inset, and time back home on the small dial. When going on a trip, a few days before departure I set the small dial to the time of destination and start to adjust sleep patterns towards that time. Once in the air, a couple of button presses swaps the time between small dial and big dial, so I now have destination time on the big dial and home time on the small dial. UTC is permanently displayed (or can be toggled to date with a button touch).

Add to that, 200m waterproof, solar powered, and radio-time signalled controlled, it is a super time piece for a pilot.

The GW3500 can even take 12g, and even if it exceeds that, the hands can reset themselves automatically. The GW2500 has a lower g tolerance, and requires manual reset if exceeded - but I have not needed to do it yet.

It is virtually indestructible - I have had mine for six years or so and have hardly ever removed it from my wrist.

http://www.christopherward.co.uk/watches/aviation/c8-kvkt-mk2.html

I like watches. This one is my flying companion

Simon

Sensible watch. Silly price.:bored: This Silliness extends into the Diving world. How about a Cartier Diver's watch at £19k.


http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/watches...g-watches-2015

The most useful watch I ever wore in 32 years of flying was the Casio black plastic. I went through 3 of them, they did everything I needed, that is, told the time in 2 zones, woke me up and there was never any tension about leaving them in a hotel room.

For a lot of timing functions I prefer to use the panel mounted equipment if installed, the garmin 330 transponder has excellent count up and down timers as do most GPS's including tanks switch reminders. The bonus of the panel mounted stuff is if it's set up right it gives you audio messages to your headset when the timers are up or tanks need switched

I like watches and have many.

This is my pilots. Stupidly expensive today but not when I bought it.

Works at 7g and as I do aeros it makes sense.

For me it's perfect balance of form and function. Judging by prices for 2nd hand ones today I am not alone in thinking this.

Tutima | Military Commando II Chronograph Einsatzuhr | Titan | Uhren-Datenbank watchtime.net

As a bit of a watch afficionado, I have to recommend the Omega Speedmaster Professional. It's reliable, and has an interesting history as the Moon Watch, and it is one of the most legible watches I've comeback across, with its white markers on a black dial.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y82...r/IMG_0113.jpg

Everyone has an iPhone these days. Why do you need a watch?

It's like taking a Filofax or an Address Book with you.

For pilot navigation a simple analogue watch does me fine - easier to work out ETAs by visualising the minute hand moving on "x" minutes and then "reading" the ETA.

I got my current watch from Lidl 4 or 5 years ago. £7. Uncluttered black face with white markers and hands. Good quality leather strap.


When I recently took it in for a new battery, I commented to the guy in the shop that the cost of the battery was approaching the cost of the watch.


He lifted an £800 watch from a display and said, "Same movement".:)

Tried hand flying and looking up the time on your iPhone?

My main things about a watch are a clear face, reliable and it has to be automatic or solar powered (so the battery won't run out mid flight)

I use a Citizen Eco Drive Chronograph.

Easy to read, not expensive, solar powered, Stopwatch (not that I've ever used it, the aircraft always has a stopwatch), and a simple bezel to put the ATC slot time on to remind me

You do realise that it is possible to buy and run for a year or so an aeroplane for the price of that?

And, with care, still buy a perfectly good watch !

G

>>>Works at 7g and as I do aeros it makes sense.

Think about that for a moment.

The internal components of any wristwatch have a mass which is trivially small. At, even say, 20g so are any gravitational and inertial forces.

Plus, given the geometry, my wrist probably sees more gs going for a brisk walk than a member of The Blades does whilst flying a display.

Basically, a £5 watch from Argos will be just as able to take aerobatics - possibility better as it has a far lower mass.

G

Yes and if you think that some buy a car they like, wasting quite a bit of money, when a simple FIAT 127 would do the same job.

Why do something for your own pleasure or satisfaction when you can be cheap?

;)

Miserlou, the Superluminova on those watches is very good stuff, despite the silly name. It won't fade over the years, unlike tritium-based stuff.

Fascinating thread :) All human vanity on show here. :hmm:

In 40 years of professional flying I only ever wanted a reliable watch that tells the time. It never occurred to me that a watch could be a status symbol ... but it seems for some the more useless and expensive and unreadable the watch ... the more status!

Ah don't get me started on 'pilot' sunglasses! :rolleyes:

I like watches for the fact that they are amazingly complicated little machines, and sometimes very beautiful. All chronographs time flights equally well, whether they're mechanical or quartz. I just happen to like mechanical watches the best :)

I would say that most of the above is absolute tosh; the only watch you should consider for flying is a Breitling.

I couldn't even contemplate going flying without my Breitling, and I must admit that on the one occasion I did make a disastrous oversight and flew with a naked arm, I managed to end up 280nm in the opposite direction of my original destination and performed the most appalling landing you could imagine.

In the subsequent investigation with the AAIB, I later realised that I had spent the entire flight confusing the DI and chronometer with one another. The similarities were uncanny, but had I brought along my trusty watch, I would have quickly realised the serious mistake. The landing can easily be attributed to the fact that my Breitling, through several turns of the various dials (83 different actions to be precise) can calculate the correct glideslope and Vat. Without the critical feature, the result is self explanatory.

Finally, if I had been wearing my watch, I would have noticed when looking down to check the time that my vision was not as sharp as it normally is, and would have worn my prescription spectacles and subsequently would have identified the correct aircraft at my field of departure, rather then having to call the CFI and explain how he would need a truck to collect what remained of his beloved personal Piper Cub (which I now understand I'm only the second person fortunate to have ever flown it).

If you need any further information on this watch, please do not hesitate to ask.

Masterly.

And highly amusing.

:ok: :ok: :)

Hand flying? What's that?

I've got a drawer full of watches :( Sad, me. I decided I have an analogue brain, so digital watches don't do it for me. I particularly like my KGB Officer's automatic bombproof "special".

I sold the Breitling - it never worked right anyway, and surprisingly I got a good price for it.

Nowadays I wear a simple Seiko with a nice, clear display and (slightly) luminous hands. There is a stop watch function in it, but waving a magnifying glass in front of the watch while flying in cloud doesn't instil confidence in passengers.

For instrument approaches, I have a very old wind-up sports-teacher-type Smiths stopwatch and a mount that hooks it to the yoke. I use it for IFR flight and for IMCR and IR tests. It has the advantage that the examiner can see it, too.

There was a clock on the panel of the Arrow, but it decided each day whether it would work or not, so I planned on "not".

I know what you mean about having an analogue brain. I look at a watch with hands and see something that means something. LCD numbers are clear to view, but just don't give a full picture.

Seiko, Breitling or Christopher Ward depending on my mood, two of which were very generous gifts and each as reliable as the other - or el cheapo if I'm going somewhere where it may be requested that I part company with one of the above.

Wear what makes you feel happiest. The only proviso is that it is legible when you need it and can keep passable time. You are not planning a precision bomb run. Life is too short.

Oh do that.

But don't pretend that the Breitling makes you fly any better, or the Ferrari ensures that the groceries make it back from Sainsbury in better condition.

G

i use this when I’m flying, very accurate and never needs winding or running out of power.

http://cdn.instructables.com/FZ7/CIX...15LR.LARGE.jpg

or i use this

http://www.flli-consonni.com/F.lli%2...g/Art510_2.jpg

Fats

Whether you are one or not. Flashing a multi-function, cluttered face 'Pilot' watch at an airfield is going to suggest POSER to many. Much like the car number plates suggesting you're a pilot.

Blimey, how many hands did they have?!

Funny, all the inferences being drawn from people's interest in watches. I like watches. Some of them are expensive. My Seamaster can withstand a depth of 300m. Will I ever use more than 30 of them? No. Do I care? Nope, because I like the watch. Doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.

You use a watch for diving? How quaint. Most of us use highly efficient wrist mounted dive computers. Designed to fit over a drysuit.;)

No, I don't dive at all, other than down to about 10m every now and then when I'm swimming. That said, it has a clasp extension, so it fits around a dry- or wetsuit if the need ever should arise. I do use it when sailing, so it's close to water every now and then ;)

But hey, I guess the concept of wearing a watch because one likes it is an alien concept? ;)

Watches, watches, watches
 

I like my watches, plain dress watches through to Skygod Blingmaster Pro, but despite a collection in double figures, the best sky timer I've used for VFR work is this:

ASA Digital Flight Timer

I've found most of the timers on watch faces too small to get all the info at a glance, and this timer does legs and total time at the same time, also has dual time, and is the cheapest by far!!

That's got 7 buttons!

At my stage of learning I can just about manage steering, accelerator and P.T.T! :)

Glum,

Pretty sure I only used 4 of them to complete my SEP(A) training (time, stopwatch, start/stop, and reset), only used "Light" when I added night to my licence.

Really want the new Garmin D2 Bravo though...

TPP

Real Pilots need proper watches. I recommend this one:

http://www.ablogtowatch.com/wp-conte...03/MR2129a.jpg

I believe it comes with 4-bar gold epaulettes.

I've never bothered with anything other than a normal watch for VFR, and I have a £5.99 Argos digital stopwatch for IMC. But I'm probably not a Real Pilot.

I like my IWC Grosse Fliegeruhr..


http://media2.iwc.com/site_media/upl...y_And_Date.jpg

Nice and clear with an easy to use stopwatch button