Watches have been a part of aviation since the first planes took to the skies. Timing equipment and a trusty watch have always been one of the tools of a good pilot.
From Charles Lindberg to today’s top pilots, lets take a look at watches and the world of air racing.
Hamilton is official timekeeper of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship
The Red Bull Air Race World Championship is an official World Championship, accredited by the FAI – The World Air Sports Federation. It has been known as the new dimension of motorsport, featuring 14 of the best race pilots in a pure motorsport competition that combines speed, precision and skill. Using the fastest, most agile and lightweight racing planes, pilots navigate a low-level aerial track made of 25 meters-high air-filled pylons. It is a visual spectacle unlike any other.
Today, many squadrons use Hamilton watches as standard equipment, including the SnowBirds from Canada, South Korea’s 123rd Squadron, the Patrulla Aspa from Spain, and the F-16 Demo Team from the Netherlands, among others. Hamilton uses these associations to deepen its understanding of pilot needs and the watch functions required to develop timepieces designed for pilots, such as the Khaki Takeoff for Air Zermatt, a transport and rescue helicopter unit in the Alps.
Alpina Watches is the Sponsor of Michael Goulian at The Red Bull Air Races
Alpina Watches is now the official Michael Goulian Team Partner. Alpina Watches will be present at all 2018 Red Bull Air races, supporting Michael Goulian.
Aviation has been part of Alpina’s DNA for almost a century. In 1921, Alpina became a renowned supplier of time instruments for military pilots and air forces so it’s only natural to welcome Michael Goulian as part of the Alpina aviation family.
Breitling’s long History with Aviation
Breitling is without a doubt one of the most admired and sought-after watch brands for aviation professionals. The brand has been making watches for the aviation industry for over a century and its watches have accompanied pilots on numerous groundbreaking flights and voyages.
Leon Breitling began making watches in 1884 from his workshop in the Swiss Jura Mountains, devoting himself to developing chronographs and timers to be used in the world of sports, science and industry. In 1915 Breitling created the first truly independent chronograph push-piece.
6 Comments
Al Brancifort
As a pilot, a watch is part of the cockpit scanning procedure, especially in IFR conditions. Great info for the web sight. Your service is awesome my Rolex has been keep perfect time since the cleaning better than when new, that’s the truth ! My wife’s is coming soon.
Mark Morgan
Great story didn’t think that watches were used that much in flying.
Thanks Mark
Miami Mike
FAA requires a working clock in the airplane, permanently installed, for the airplane to be airworthy. Your wristwatch, however nice and however accurate doesn’t meet the permanently installed requirement. You can certainly go ahead and use it (many people do), but the aircraft’s clock has to be there.
There are quite a few uses for the clock. Navigation and fuel management are the big ones. You also need to know the time for local sunrise and sunset because some of the regs for operation are different day to night. (Example, fuel reserves required, daytime VFR, 30 minutes, nighttime VFR, 45 minutes.)
With the advent of GPS and digital fuel management systems, the clock has become less important, but you still need to have it and you will still use it.
An adequate watch for a pilot will be an analog watch with luminescent hands and dial (with numbers on it) and be large enough to see without squinting. A sweep second hand is comforting, but if you are reckoning your fuel burn down to the second, you really need to land and refuel NOW.
Most watches marketed for pilots are WAY overdone and have functions which are impossible to use (the time/speed/distance calculator for instance is microscopic) or utterly un-needed. You aren’t likely to need a 24 time zone watch if you are flying a Cessna 150 (well maybe you do, the rate of climb on a 150 uses a calendar instead of a VSI . . . )
The REAL function of most pilot watches is to proclaim to all and sundry HEY, I’M A PILOT!!!
That’s fine, there are plenty of worse ways to spend money.
Best Regards,
Miami Mike
Don Garrison
Hi, Mark!Your article begs the question: I wish you could overhaul my 1973 Breitling Navitimer 7806 !! Regards Don
Salvatore lobosco
Very cool and informative blog,the watches are top shelf too
Gary Gordon
A watch that is seldom scene anymore is a Glycine Airman. They were a true twenty-four hour watch that was popular among pilots during the Vietnam war. I bought mine in 68 and still wear it today. They were far more popular than the Rolex GMT because we could set zulu on the face of the watch (all of our sorties were on zulu time) and local time on the outer ring. The calander displayed the date of zulu time. Most importantly, the outer ring could be locked positively unlike the Rolex. Every young throttle jockey had to have one. I think i paid $125 at the BX for mine. They had an interesting hack feature, that stopped the second hand at exactly 12. A small pin popped up when the crown was pulled stopping the second hand. They are good timekeepers having a 25 jewell self winding movement adjusted for position.