Fooling with a pocket watch was the last thing pilots and navigators wanted to do while flying. Pilot watches were thus created for ease of use and then evolved as a tool for aviation. The pilot watch has many iconic designs, from big faces to complex bezels, but what classifies a watch as a Pilot Watch?
Pilot Watch Characteristics
There are several design characteristics of a Pilot Watch, but all were for a specific purpose, aiding in flight.
Big Dial: Pilots and their navigators wanted to tell time at a glance, so Pilot Watches typically acquired a big dial face with a dark background and big, bright numbers for legibility.
Lume: Flight didn't occur exclusively during the day, especially while flying around the world. Luminescence, or Lume for short, was used to make the watch's numbers and hands glow in the dark, making it easy to read at night.
Oversized Crown: Pilots and Navigators needed a good grip on the crown to wind the watch or set the time without removing their thick leather gloves. Thus, pilot watches come with oversized crowns for that needed grip.
Complex Bezel/Extra Complications: Pilot watches evolved into an essential tool to help assist in flight with bezel features and added complications. Slide rule bezels (matching scales that rotate for quick calculations) were added to the watch for calculating fuel burn, wind correction angles, and other flight calculations. GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) complications were added for telling time in multiple time zones, and chronograph complications were added for timing aircraft speeds and keeping track of flight times.
Popular Types of Pilot Watches
The Flieger: The Flieger pilot watch was invented in the early 1940s and can be seen in two iconic design types, Type A and Type B. Type A is a simple and minimalistic design with large standard markers and the typical hour, minute, and second hands. Type B is designed to read minutes at a glance. The short hour hand lines up with the hour numbers on the inner circle, and the long minute hand lines up with the minute numbers on the outer circle. Both types have the iconic triangle marker at the noon position.
Type 20 and Type 21 Chronograph: Made with the chronograph markers at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions, the French Type 20 and 21 has a unique flyback chronograph complication. The flyback feature allows the user to reset the chronograph to zero with one push of a button unlike the three pushes needed for a regular chronograph. (stop, return, start)
Navitimer Chronograph: The Breitling Navitimer is a timeless pilot's watch with a circular multifunctional slide rule on the bezel and a three-sub-dial chronograph complication. This complex, yet beautiful, watch design has been adopted by other watch brands.
As aviation technology advanced, some of the pilot watches' functions were replaced by flight panel instruments. However, pilots and non-pilots enjoy today's variety of designs that are based on the classic timepiece. So what do you think? Is the pilot watch something you need in your collection?
Leave a comment