I've actually got a portable sundial... Gnomon on a compass card. Works sort of.

Pontius' timepiece

- Lightweight 'cos of some titanium stuff
- Solar recharged
- Radio thingy updated so it keeps good time
- World times
- Yes, it has a stopwatch
- Doesn't mind getting wet
- Not cheap, cheap but certainly not expensive

That's not IWC "Grosse Fliegeruhr"? That's a normal 3717?
The IWC Big Pilots (5009 being the classic one) are not chronographs, they are bigger than the 3717 with the big crown, and so on...

Why does someones choice of watch elicit so much vitriol, any more than the choice of car, aircraft etc? If you want to spend £5.99 on a watch then why not? same if you want to spend £50,000.
Why all the references to the inverse relationship between the cost of a watch and a pilots skills or worse?

I would expect that sort of trolling on some of the children's inter web forums but not here

Simon

I agree.

My watch cost me £13,000 and it's really useful when I'm flying in IMC.

Well to explain the point in simple terms for those that don't understand many of the cynicle posts, the issue isn't about the watch. I have several high end watches, however none of them would I associate specifically with flying. Apart from some marketing BS, the concept of a 'pilot watch' is a fallacy.
Buy a watch because you like a watch, but when you are in the air I shouldn't imagine you will have a second thought about what is on your arm...

dera

Well spotted - just a stock photo grabbed from the web..........

Now Sherlock....what about the stopwatch function on a Grosse?

There is only one true poseur's watch .... but only available to a select few!

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...ddcde034c3.jpg

Well, if we're talking decadance. A mere snip at $46000 (yes, three zeros)

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/ariel...01-watch-1.jpg

+1

Nothing wrong with expensive toys. But buy them because you want them, because it gives you pleasure using them, or just pleasure in owning them.

But to say you just need that expensive pilot watch as a pilot? Well, if that's the mental process you go through to justify to yourself spending the money - fine.

I think what makes it complicated is perhaps people like me. I like nice watches, and will pay for a nice one if I want it. I do however quite like the idea of it having useful functions that could be used for flying related things. Whether this is simply a chronograph or something with more than one time zone it doesn't really matter. I do know that I will rarely ever use a lot of the 'features' on so called 'pilot' watches, but I find it interesting to have something that could be relevant.

As such, sometimes when I am looking for a new watch I look at what it could give me in that sense, 'which one of these COULD be a useful tool at work'. The only functions I have ever actually used relating to work are countdown timers, alarms and a second timezsone.

My goodness. So many people still doing stopwatch and compass navigation. I thought everybody was following the magenta line these days. (I have the Casio).

K.I.S.S approach for me...
 

We usually flew relatively short legs and I used an analogue watch with a black dial and white luminous numbers and a rotatable bezel. (Also easy to read in the middle of the night without my specs on!)

When over a turning point, it took only a few seconds to rotate the bezel to zero over the minute hand. If the next leg was, say 13 minutes, it was quick & easy to read the time off the bezel. Certainly quicker for me than to add 13 minutes to 14:49 and come up with 15:02, and then write it down....

Assuming your plot included the the time from leg to leg, all that was needed was to rotate the bezel at each turning point.

This was a few years ago, now, so I expect few PPLs today sit down with a map, draw lines on it, use the wizz-wheel and then write it all down...

Oh and yes, I did buy a digital stop watch, but rarely used it, but then I didn't go for an instrument rating - just enjoyed 'plot & bash' on nice days.

I wonder how long the 'pilot's watch thread will take to come round again?

Finally, I bought a Casio digital watch when I retired, because it had the DAY on it as well as everything else. It has a 10 year (claimed) battery life and keeps time to within better than 10 seconds a year. Not bad for £14...:)

"This was a few years ago, now, so I expect few PPLs today sit down with a map, draw lines on it, use the wizz-wheel and then write it all down..."

Maybe not post exam PPL's, but that's certainly what I'm doing for my nav training.

I can only just afford the CAA chart, let alone a magenta line :}

The magenta line is fine until you find yourself without a PC/mobile/tablet or run out of volts for one of the aforementioned devices. The same argument applies to GPSs too. In my humble opinion, these devices should be supplimentary to lines on maps. Never lose the old skills! :ok:

To somewhat drag this back OT...

When I was a teen I first saw the film then read the book "The Right Stuff". This left me with a lifelong interest in space, space flight and NASA. It also gave me an overly romantic view on pilots and aviation.

Fast forward a (lot) of years and I have some disposible cash. I wanted a decent watch - because a good mechanical watch is a thing of engineering beauty - and there was only one choice, Omega Speedmaster Professional. I am a sucker for the whole "flight certified by NASA", first watch on the moon thing, love the history and think the design has never been bettered. Simple, easy to read and discrete by modern standards.

The fact I am learning to fly is driven by the same motives - I'll never be Jim Lovell or Chuck Yaeger but I can take personal pride in a good landing and when I screw up (often) I console myself with the fact that even guys like that had to learn sometime. I'd imagine if it hadn't been for the formative experience of that book I'd probably never have sat in a cockpit or bought that watch.

So some of us are just suckers for the romance of flight, the glamour of the air and enjoy aviation "stuff". Some take it too far (flightsuit in a C172 far) but if you've got a passion for flying it's probably going to come out in a number of ways.

That said I'd never wear a Brietling, horrible blingly bits of chav magnet ;)

Dear Santa...

This is what I really want.

http://media.christopherward.co.uk/m...o-skt_1_nf.jpg