Fortis has a long history of professional flying watches. The Flieger Professional has a 41mm case with areas of polished and satin-finish steel, a crown with a new logo, anti-reflective watchglass and sapphire caseback. The dial has a degree of three-dimensionality, with a slightly depressed ring with the seconds scale. Numerals, hour markers and hands…
This pilot’s watch by German brand Junghans has a world of character. It’s totally pilot’s in its looks, but it’s different from any other pilot’s watch. It incorporates a lot of the brand’s history, with the movement named after its own in-house J88 chronograph movement designed in 1949, and the unusual twelve-sided bezel derived directly…
The Bremont ALT1-C/PB is an extension of Bremont’s core range, and in particular its ALT1-C range of chronograph watches, which were the first that the company designed after its foundation in 2002. The dial layout is classic, with two subdials, one on the left for continuous seconds, one on the right for 30 chronograph minutes. On its…
The Solo family represents the entry-level for Bremont pilot’s watches. It has now been extended with these two classic pilot’s watches, with black or white dial. The difference with respect to the existing Solo pieces is the case and bezel, now available in polished steel. The Solo case is in steel that is specially hardened…
These watches were born from popular request. Bremont received feedback that women liked their classic pilots watches and so they have now introduced three 32mm models specifically for the female audience. As is customary for the British brand, no compromise: mechanical movements, COSC chronometer certification that guarantees precision, hardened steel case with excellent toughness and…
It looks like a classic pilot’s watch, but the Zenith Heritage Pilot Café Racer has a marketing campaign designed to connect with a different set of clients: classic motorbikes. The Café Racer movement was born in England in the 1920s, when riders customized their motorbikes and souped up their engines. The watch has all the…
Mini, because the case diameter has been reduced from the original 55 mm of the B-Uhr specification to 45 mm. But the Mini-Replica by Laco is still a large and impressive watch, with dark sandblasted finish and anti-fingerprint coating. The ordnance number FL 23883 is engraved on the caseband. Differently to the orginal B-Uhr, this…
This is a new pilot’s watch by Laco presented at Baselworld 2016. The piece is 42 mm in diameter, and its principal characteristic is that dial and stainless steel case have been specially treated to give them an aged look. They are very convincing, with marks of oxidation on the solid caseback, and a dial…
Modern pilot’s watches don’t really have a practical function today. In the years from the 1920s up until the 1950s, they were essential parts of equipment, and so gained their characteristics of large size, and long leather straps so that they could be worn over a flying suit. Today even sports pilots have all sorts…
Part of the extensive Laco collection of pilot’s watches, the Ju 52 is a very wearable model with a 42 mm stainless steel case, 12.8 mm thick, with black PVD coating that gives it a sleek, modern look. The watch is part of the Type C collection, linked to pre-WW2 watches with cathedral hands and…
Breguet began making pilot’s chronographs in 1955, with the Type XX commissioned by the French air force and naval air arm. This was followed by the Types XXI and XXII, and they have been in production ever since. This year, Breguet presents the new Type XXI 3817 chronograph, an evocative piece with a vintage-look dial…
This pilot’s watch by Ingersoll 1892 is a new product that will be launched in June 2016. In a 43 mm case, it has some appealing visual features, such as the cathedral hands and the knurled bezel that reinforce the vintage effect. Unfortunately the designers have added a date window which mars the dial’s overall…
The Senator Excellence is one of Glashütte Original‘s new product launches for Baselworld 2016, but it is much more than just three new references including a classic pilot’s watch design. Its new Calibre 36 movement incorporates a lot of research and development, and it will become the foundation of a whole new series of watches.…
It’s not hard to see that there is increasing interest in pilot’s watches from major brands, with Patek Philippe introducing a classic pilot’s watch out of the blue last year (2015), a traditional pilot’s watch from Montblanc also launched in 2015, and the Senator Observer from Glashütte Original. At SIHH in January, IWC renewed its…
This, the IWC Big Pilot’s Heritage Watch 48 IW510301, is the closest that IWC has come to a re-edition of its classic 1940 pilot’s watch 52-Calibre T.S.C. The Heritage Watch is 48 mm in diameter, compared to the 55 mm of the 1940s 52-Calibre T.S.C. and the new Heritage Watch 55. Its size and appearance…
The IW503801 by IWC is the Antoine de Saint Exupéry version of the Perpetual Calendar Top Gun IW502902 watch, with the differences being the tobacco brown dial, the display caseback, the Santoni strap with cream contrasting stitching and orange lining, and the calibre. The movement is the in-house 52610, visible through the sapphire caseback. This…
This watch by IWC Schaffhausen is almost identical to the previous 2012 version, the only difference being the embossed calfskin strap instead of the soft black textile strap. The ceramic case is 48 mm in diameter and 16 mm thick, solid caseback with Top Gun logo, and 6 bar water resistance. The dial is very…
The IW500917 is the luxury version of the Big Pilot’s Watch IW500912, IWC’s interpretation of the Type A B-Uhr watch. The 46mm case is in red gold, and likewise hands, conical crown and back. The watch is powered by the in-house 51111 calibre, running at 21,600 vibrations per hour, 3 Hertz. Power reserve is over…
The IWC IW500916 is one of the versions of the IWC Big Pilot’s Watch IW500912, the brand’s classic pilot’s watch with in-house movement. It has a double-riveted strap by Santoni, a conical screw-in crown, and a dial with the blue colour hallmarking Petit Prince models. The case size has been reduced from 48 to 46…
This is perhaps the closest (along with the Pilot’s Watch Mark XVIII) that IWC gets to the Type A B-Uhr watch in their pilot’s watch collection launched in January 2016. It has a double-riveted strap by Santoni, a conical screw-in crown, and a simple dial design with just date and power reserve subdial added to…