In 2016 is coming to an end, we are ready to launch a new watch in Geneva in January 2017 to see SIHH fair – we recall some of the most famous clocks in this year launched the SIHH piece, in some popular categories. Today, we are concerned about eight well-known pilots and aviation-affected watches, making it to our radar.

Bell & Ross, who has been making pilots watches, has now created a mechanical chronometer astronaut. Bell & Ross BR-X1 Hyperstellar has been working on harsh space missions. Bell & Ross combines the fifth grade and blue anodized aluminum titanium square, 45mm case. Tough-yet-lightweight materials are widely used in the aerospace industry; aluminum has a reputation for generating a water-impermeable, corrosion-resistant oxide layer and titanium for its corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. The combination of colors is also symbolic of space exploration: the blue earth, the gray moon. The lid, the middle, and the center of the micro-blasted and polished titanium, the aluminum is used to protect the frame inserts. Increased the case near-impermeability bumper made of titanium and rubber, as a protective shell. Ergonomic rubber grip chronograph button is easy to wear by hand with thick gloves, and even handle and dial design emphasizes easy readability under a variety of conditions. Field illness, automatic caliber BR-CAL. 313 gray-tinted sapphire dial down, there is an “X” shaped upper bridge to treat the black DLC (DLC carbon) and a chronograph function with a center 60 second counter and a 30 minute 9 o’clock subdial using aluminum disks for turbine blades, whilst Not the traditional hand. The satin-finished caseback is made of titanium screws and has a small “planetary observing porthole” in the upper half, providing a balance of movement.

The Breguet Type XXI 3817 — descendant of the brand’s early-20th century aviator watches worn by the French air force — boasts an all-new slate-gray dial and this collection’s first see-through sapphire caseback. Equipped with a flyback chronograph function, the watch has a 42-mm steel case with the vintage-influenced fluted caseband that is characteristic of Breguet’s luxury pilots’ watch collection. The case’s bidirectional rotating bezel, a fixture of classical pilots’ watches, has engraved Arabic numerals and a smooth, brushed finish; the screw-locked crown aids in the case’s water resistance of 100 meters. The crystal is sapphire and the lugs are elegantly rounded. The dial details include luminescent Arabic hour numerals, luminescent hour and minute hands, a 24-hour day-night indicator subdial at 3 o’clock, date window at 6 o’clock, and small seconds subdial at 9 o’clock. Two center-mounted hands count off the chronograph seconds and minutes (indicated on a 60-minute track on the dial’s outer ring), while the subdial at 6 o’clock tallies up to 12 elapsed chronograph hours. The self-winding movement that powers the watch, the numbered and signed Breguet Caliber 584Q/2, is on display through the sapphire caseback. The watch comes on a vintage-style brown calfskin strap.

With the launch of its own in-house base movement, Caliber B01, in 2009, Breitling earned its place among the ranks of true watchmaking manufactures. With this year’s launch of the Breitling Avenger Hurricane — featuring a case made of a new, proprietary alloy called Breitlight — it joined the even more exclusive club of watch brands that have created their own case materials. Breitlight, used here for the first time on a watch case, is a high-tech material that Breitling says is four times lighter than titanium but significantly harder. Among its other listed attributes are exceptional resistance to scratches, traction, and corrosion; thermal stability; and antimagnetic and non-allergenic properties, in addition to being warmer to the touch than other metals and, aesthetically, having a somewhat mottled surface texture. The 50-mm case is water-resistant to 100 meters and has a unidirectional rotating bezel with rider tabs. The screw-locked crown and chronograph push-pieces have a grooved checkerboard pattern for a non-slip grip. The movement is Caliber B12, a variation on Breitling’s B01 base caliber, with the 24-hour time display added to that movement’s other notable attributes, including automatic winding, a high-frequency balance, a 70-hour power reserve, and an integrated 1/4 second chronograph. For more details and photos.

IWC incorporated a handful of design revisions in the new Pilot’s Watches it introduced at this year’s SIHH. Most of these were aesthetic revamps, but one new watch boasts a major new technical advance as well: the IWC Pilot’s Watch Timezoner Chronograph, with its easy-to-use time zone function in which the wearer can set a new zone simply by using the bezel. The wearer simply presses the city-ring bezel down, turns it so the city representing the desired time zone is at 12 o’clock, and release. Both the hour hand and the small, red-tipped 24-hour hand will move synchronously with the turning of the bezel, and the date display will also change accordingly, either forward or backward. The 24-hour hand, which indicates the time on an inner ring, ensures that the wearer always will know whether it is day or night in his selected time zone. The advance of the minute hand, and all the watch’s other functions, are unaffected while changing time zones. The sprung-rotating bezel moves only when pressure is exerted on it from opposite sides (thumb and index finger), releasing the lock and protecting the ring from inadvertant rotations. When the pressure is released, a spring mechanism returns it to its original locked position. The watch, which has a 45-mm steel case, also features a chronograph function; its movement is IWC’s Caliber 89760, which boasts a 68-hour power reserve.

The Perrelet Turbine Pilot Grand Raid, a limited-edition watch with a military-aviation flavor from the brand’s flagship Turbine collection, was a showcase piece at the Perrelet booth.  It is distinguished from other Turbine watches by the circular slide rule bezel that rings its moving, turbine-inspired double-rotor dial. Composed of concentric circles with different graduated scales, with an inner ring that rotates in both directions, this instrument, controlled by the crown at 3 o’clock, enables a pilot to quickly make numerical calculations and convert measurement data, two useful functions while in flight. The watch has a black-PVD-coated steel case that measures an ample 48 mm in diameter and 13.65 mm thick. Beneath the 12 black, anodized aluminum turbine blades of the upper dial is a black under-dial with beige streaks, which reveals its face when the wearer’s wrist motions activate the five tungsten counterweights under the blades, spinning them for a dynamic optical effect of shifting colors. The watch contains the in-house, automatic Perrelet Caliber P-331, and comes on a beige nylon strap, which matches the dial’s numerals.

 

The Tutima Grand Flieger is the revised and modernized re-edition of the historical Fliegerchronograph that the German brand introduced in 1941 (and later released in a replica edition in 1990).The original Fliegerchronograph was, Tutima says, the first German-made chronograph outfitted with a flyback mechanism. The contemporary version has a larger case (43-mm diameter) but maintains much of the original’s vintage details, such as the stark, black-and-white dial, the notched, bidirectional coin-edged bezel with red reference marker at 12 o’clock, and the vintage-style hands and Arabic numerals. The chronograph’s sweep seconds hand is bright red. The subdials at 12, 6, and 9 o’clock display, respectively, 30 elapsed chronograph minutes, 12 elapsed chronograph hours, and running seconds. The watch is powered by Tutima Caliber 320, an automatic movement with an “antique gray” rotor and a power reserve of 44 hours. The black leather strap with white contrast stitching is also a nod to the early days of aviation watches.

 

Britain’s Speake-Marin is known more for its forays into high-end complications, but the brand also offers sportier options in its Spirit line, which uses many of the same iconic Speake-Marin design elements, including the familiar Piccadilly case and the “Foundation” hands, but adds a distinctive aviation-watch influence. The Speake-Marin Spirit Wing Commander has a 42-mm case made of grade 5 titanium and a matte black dial with contrasting indexes and hands. The self-winding movement, which Speake-Marin calls Caliber Timeless 1024, provides a very interesting layout and displays useful indications, including a big date at 12 o’clock, small seconds at 9 o’clock (represented here by a white wheel in the ‘topping tool’ shape that is now emblematic of the brand) and a power-reserve indicator at 6 o’clock — in the style of a cockpit dashboard’s fuel gauge — which displays a bright, Super-LumiNova white when completely wound (full, at 48 hours), then turning black (half-full), and finally red (running on empty) as the mainspring winds down. The indexes and numerals are made of white elements in Super-LumiNova, in 3D relief and inserted into the dial, creating a contrast with the black dial and thus excellent legibility. The watch is on a reddish brown, stitched calf leather strap with a titanium pin buckle.

Zenith Pilot Type 20 Greenwich time, two new versions of the popular aviation-inspired collection with North America – Sports Exclusive 48-mm-diameter black and dome DLC-coated titanium sapphire crystal case. The number on the dark blue dial is beige Super-LumiNova treats “antique”. Bright red for the center of the hand, Greenwich time 24 hours on the scale of the double time display function. Small seconds appear in subdial at 9 o’clock. Sports is the zenith of the automatic elite 693, the frequency of 28800 vph, 26 jewelry, 50 hours of electricity reserves. The watch is 100 meters waterproof and features a solid, engraved caseback that depicts the history of the Wright Brothers “flyer” glider that launched the 1903 Kitty Hawk. Features All the features of Zenith’s modern pilots collection, those that appear to have been produced by watch companies in early aviation, include a large, wavy crown, extensive glowing Arabic numerals, period-appropriate stylized hands. Limited to only 50, the watch dial-matching blue crocodile belt and a black titanium nail button.