The three versions: the Navihawk, Skyhawk and Nighthawk all feature multiple time zones, solar quartz movements, 1/100s chronographs and their most distinctive feature, the circular slide rule. Citizen’s Hawk watches are definitely the latter. The Digital Age & Aviator WatchesĪviation watches can vary from super-minimal displays which provide a very quick read, to feature heavy watches which have a lot of complications. The most famous such watch is the Omega Speedmaster Professional.Įd White wore his personal Speedmaster during the first spacewalk and NASA then selected it as the standard issue watch for the Apollo program.
#AVIATOR TIME PILOT WATCH FULL#
Once the space race got into full swing and astronauts became celebrities, watch manufacturers were quick to advertise the watches that NASA selected for use in space. This allowed pilots to track flight time with the Zulu bezel and still use the local timezone while on the ground. In response, Rolex developed the GMT Master II featuring two hour hands, one corresponding to the traditional 12-hour watch face on the dial and the other synchronized to a 24-hour bezel. In order to standardize global operations, airlines and air forces began coordinating operations based on Greenwich Mean Time, aka GMT or Zulu time. In the jet-age, as pilots found themselves flying across multiple time zones a new requirement emerged. Expect to spend between $4,000 and $15,000 for an IWC. Their Fliegers are modern updates to the Type-A. They produce traditional Fliegers with Swiss automatic movements. Stowa watches are only available directly from their website. The Laco Paderborn Type-B is their flagship offering in Swiss automatic with traditional thermal blued steel hands Lacos Type-As are available in quartz or Japanese automatic movements. They aren’t huge anymore though, they’ve been scaled down from the massive original watch. Three of the five original manufacturers still produce fliegers today. The original Type-B was a massive 55mm and was issued to navigators who needed precise timing for dead-reckoning navigation: finding a target by flying solely referencing time and magnetic heading. In the 1930s the Luftwaffe developed the Flieger style of watches: the Type-A with simple numerals and delta index at 12 o’clock, and the Type-B with large minutes in the outer dial and hours in the inner dial. Over time, air forces around the world began to develop watches with specific aviation functions. They had to be accurate, of course and they had to be readable under low-light conditions.įield watches, with their hand-wound movements and black dials with large white numerals satisfied both of these requirements. The earliest watches worn by pilots were simply repurposed field watches. If you’re in the military and want to build a plan for financial independence then sign up here.
This is a guest post from Kevin Mack at Fly High Finance. In keeping with the forward thinking nature of the aviation industry, the type has grown and developed as new technology and new requirements have emerged. There isn’t any one style that defines an aviator watch. Today we’re going to talk about aviation watches.Īs a pilot in the US Air Force I’ve always had a keen interest in aviators’ watches and I’m going to share my insights and observations to help you choose your ideal timepiece. These are some of the things that come to mind when we think about aviator style.
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