I am a pilot and I like pilots' watches, but honestly, I never use them for flying. My friend teaches 777 pilots, he does not wear a watch. I asked him and he said there are about 14 clocks in the cockpit.
I'm a Private Pilot and I never really use the watch for flying either. They might be useful as a backup for your backups or to easily see Zulu time compared to the weather reports during planning. I'm just disappointed that no pilot watches thinks to come with a barometer. For non pressurized aircraft, it would be cool to get a backup altimeter and v/s indicator on your wrist, or even for pressurized aircraft, you could use it to see cabin altitude.
Tissot T-Touch and a whole selection of G-Shocks come with barometers. I have both and the T-Touch is a real standout, high quality watch. Definitely recommendable.
My preferences have changed over the years. When I was a youngster I prefered the very busy Blue Angel type pilot watches, but now that I am well aged and wise with poor eye sight, I really like the cleaner dials of the more traditional watches. Gotta love those Hamiltons. As always, great video.
I bought 2 Dekla pilot watches after your review of them. One for me and one for my son. We did a father/son trip to Germany and wanted to buy identical watches to commemorate the occasion. Thanks for the recommendation. We love them.
All these watches were fine (especially the Citizens). I hope to see my personal favorite pilot watch (Bulova Moonwatch - 96B258 $330 on Jomashop) in the future. It is a replica of one of the watches actually used by The NASA Apollo 15 mission in 1971. The new replica includes a special quartz movement that is as accurate as +-10 seconds in a whole year!
This was the first Ali Express watch I got just 3 weeks ago. I wasn't sure if I'd like a fleiger so got this as it was cheap and I could try it out to see if I wanted a dearer one. Well, I loved the watch, it's very nice, stainless steel, sapphire crystal with AR coating great all night lume, and +3 spd with the NH35 movement....now I'm happy, don't feel the need to buy another one!
@@brianmsahin That’s all of the Flieger you’ll ever need!! I also went with the bronze Steel Dive 1940 with sterile dial... (ironically not steel or a diver😁) Chinese factory “brands” are upping their game, big time!👌
I picked up one of these after Jody's recent Aliexpress homage watches video, along with the upgraded clasp he recommended. I've most certainly not been disappointed, it's a great watch!
Last week I ordered the SteelDive Flieger (SD1940) which seems to be exactly the same watch. I got it directly from Steel Dive at www.steeldives.com for $99 USD. I added on a waffle strap (for another watch) to bring the total above the $99.99 required for free DHL shipping, which took 3 working days to get to Canada ! I love it. Nice brushed top and sides, NH35, sapphire crystal, screw down crown, classic Flieger Type-A style dial and 200m water-resistance .. incredible value for the $$$. - Michael
Not really. Casio makes everything better than Citizen and still makes it less expensive than Citizen. Therefore, Casio is, by far, the best brand in the world regarding value for money.
@@RM-el3gw Yes, really. I never saw any Casio with such defects, either. But that doesn't mean they don't exist. The same goes for Citizen. On the other hand, Jody made the video about a new Rolex watch who has such problems. No brand is immune to some faults in production. And Casio is definitely not known to have such problems on regular basis. Actually, they even developed a special mechanism to take care about misalignment of second hand with indices, which they built into the best watch line in the world - Casio Oceanus.
@@damyr I would say Casio gives a little bit more bang for your buck, but Citizen often has better designs to my taste. Love them both though, and am a proud owner of a stunning Oceanus 🌊
Actually, the Casio has a very good, solid link bracelet. It's also listed at 45.5mm but that includes the crown, the watch has a 44mm diameter, just like the Duro. Should probably get it and review it, no good reviews for it on youtube yet.
Citizen is well represented in the Flieger business. I have a Seiko SNN231 on a seatbelt NATO, which is basically a IWC Pilot Chrono clone, and I like it a lot.
The main problem I have with a lot of modern pilot watches is that there is way too much on the dial, the citizen and seiko is even hard to look at cause there’s so much on the dial
Love my Nighthawk / Navihawk. I initially bought it purely as it's a cheap GMT and thought I'd dislike the huge, busy dial, but I find I wear it far more often than any of my autos. It's running at about +1 second a month, too - super accurate. That TWCO though... WANT
As a commercial pilot, I can confirm I wanted a watch with a clear easy to read dial that has a good lume... I have many watches varying from Breitling to Orient, and my go-to watch for work is the Orient pilot watch... Love the automatic movement and it has a clear, easy to read dial/lume
Great video Jody!! You missed the Escapement Time Flieger. An amazing value Chinese special! Definitely worth checking out for a top 10 Ali Express Pilot's episode :)
I'm a pilot, and I always take up my Vostok amphibia or my Seagull 1963. They're both very legible, and it's always bumpy where I fly so legibility is important. After all, the less time spent with your head down trying to read something gives you more time to actually fly the plane
Jody, I am a pilot and I highly recommend it. There is no freer feeling in the world than being up in the air, even at just 5,000'. The dirty little secret about flying a plane is that it's actually EASIER than driving a car. That is not a joke or exaggeration because unlike cars, planes are designed to almost fly themselves. In a Cessna, you just hang a couple of fingers on your yoke and let the plane go. It's design is referred to as inherently "stable" which means that, without control input, its structural design forces it to fly straight and level as long as the engine provides adequate thrust. Jody, I know it's cheaper to fly in Canada than in Australia but this is something that I really think that you need to try. Funnily enough, I'm also SCUBA-certified and I MUCH prefer dive watches to pilot watches. LOL
Happy to hear you are going to review more Citizen watches. Given your proximity to the Asian market I would love to see a Kuroshio ‘64. What a fantastic piece of horological history. Also, the NJ0100 series are a cool aviator style automatic offering from Citizen. They have the infamous Miyota 8210 movement in them but the one I own keeps great time and I find I wear it more often than my SNZG13.
A true display of patriotic timepieces by our AU friend on the other side of the world. Timepieces will always be a true display of unity - Thank you Jody!
Great video Jody!!! I own the Citizen Blue Angels same model you reviewed here. Amazing watch although very difficult to navigate the functions as they are as you said “vast”. The one criticism is that strap deteriorates over time and I just recently bought a blue Rubber strap from Barton Watch Straps that after some difficulty attaching seems like it will hold up nicely. Thanks again keep up the great work!! Brian
I have had the Citizen Nighthawk for 10+ years. It started doing the two second skip and the mineral crystal was scratched. With some inexpensive tools from eBay I changed the capacitor and upgraded the crystal to double domed AR coated sapphire. Now like new and stunning.
Great one J. You did leave out some great Aliexpress deals. I purchased the Escapement Time Flieger (US $100), an amazing deal. The GEERVO also seems very interesting for the price (US $80).
i traded my black duro with its black and grey nato strap for my edifice with the internal sliderule bezel, i loved my duro but i been wanting a ef-527 for a while now and i got it, i ran into a buddy who deals in watches so i gave him the duro and a case mini sodbuster for it. great deal
Citizen Avion should be on this list imo! Yes it's the biggest watch I own at 44.5mm but it's just a perfect combo flieger style watch. Easy to read, three hand date, cool blue liked hands, 100m wr and of course eco-drive!
The AOPA Pilot's Chronograph from Jack Mason is an excellent buy. That said it's my first aviator watch. I have several dive watches though and it was the AOPA's rotating bezel that hooked me into the buy as I use that feature often to track an ETA at work on the fly - no pun intended. I just discovered your channel and love its title - JUST ONE MORE WATCH - as I seem to use it often following the purchase of my most recent timepiece.
Glad to see the shirts made it in time for this video! Using one of them on a top 10 video is perfect... I'm going to share with my students because they're always asking about and looking for a good pilot watch. Great video... and Boomer Sooner!
I have a Citizen Navihawk I wore for 15 years before I got into mechanical watches. It is tank, the glass got scratched over the years but it's still a great watch that works flawlessly.
My only pilot watches are the Seiko 5 SNZG09 (though this is technically a field watch) and the Escapement Time Flieger Type B. The latter is currently in my daily rotation.
Poljot 24 and a few other sellers still selling Strela, Aviator, Sturmanskie and Buran watches with the 3133 and 31689 (valjoux 7734) hand wind chronos. Some quite a lot over budget though. Those moments are getting thin on the ground now so they have started using the seagull st19s. I've had an aviator 31689 for years now and it still runs fine without ever having been serviced. One watch I'll never part with.
I have the Casio and it’s great value at C$89 from Costco. Heavy either bracelet but great on a distressed rally strap! It scratches the Navitimer itch
That twco looks clean and legible, the main reason why pilots watches are appealing imo. A lot look great with synthetic/nato straps too for a more casual look.
Highly recommend you check out the Marathon Navigator. Tritium lume and actually used by US military. We have marathon clocks throughout our submarine. There are two versions of the navigator that now has a sapphire instead of hesalite. It has fixed spring bars that can be lightly hammered out if you want to use spring bars. By design, it's only supposed to compatible with nato/zulu straps.
There are just so many out there...I think of my lovely Geckota pilot watch (not the current flieger crop). It's elegant and beautiful, and just a solid workhorse with a bracelet from a brand who began on the strap and bracelet side. There's Torgen, while not my cuppa per se, who definitely cut a profile. And Vaer also makes some nice ones...in other words, if you want a pilot, you're covered from stem to stern.
You were correct! Number 8 is the blue angels NIGHThawk. The website you show has a mistake in their listing. In the description you inserted from the website it is referred to as the blue angels nighthawk
Well, first of all, Boomer Sooner for the OU t-shirt! I was happy to see you start of with the Blue Angels watch you were wearing...I come from a family with a history in Naval service and I've seen the Blue Angels perform many times, going back to the early 60s. Oddly enough, I also happened to be wearing a pilot watch when I spotted this video, a Citizen Eco-Drive AW1361-10H. It's a modern take on the Type B Flieger. Nice looking and pretty affordable (although more expensive now on Amazon than when I bought it a couple of years ago). Pilot watches are one of my favorites, along with field watches. I like both the old school Fliegers and the modern chronographs, but prefer the Flieger aesthetic. Great video, thanks Jody!
I recently bought a Citizen Nighthawk CB0230-81E. It’s radio controlled, solar charged, sapphire, titanium and under €500 at the moment… great watch (made a few simple video’s with different straps)
Excellent video as always Jody Just wondered if you have an opinion on the Cincinnati Watch Company P 40M pilot watch? It’s within your budget limit and is powered by a Selitta manual wind.
Nice video, thanks. My problem with Laco is that they have admitted that their 'entry' level watches such as the one you show here are sources from Asia. So at the end, why not directly source ourselves from Asia, the 'EscapementTime', 'SanMartin' and 'steeldive' from ali are pretty much the same, you can choose between 40mm and 42mm, great finishing and at least you get the choice of nh35, pt5000 and sw200 for cheaper than what laco is selling.
A conundrum indeed John, and one that I touched on in a San Martin vid a while back. I guess if the brand name still matters, then Laco should be on any list.
@@JustOneMoreWatch you are correct, for those who care about the brand on an unbranded dial :) As for your videos :) every time my wife listen to the famous 'Hellooo' sge directly says : you are not going to buy a new watch are you??? :))))
Escapement Time Type'b'. Sapphire crystal, fantastic lume, decent finishing, crown and case back, with (allegedly) 300m of water resistance! 🤯🤯🤯OK, I'm cynical of the water resistance but I love mine. Looks far and away more valuable than the pittance I paid for it on AliExpress 😊👍
I cant really see the point of chronographs so I cant really come up with a sensible reason but if I was going to buy anything from your list it would be the Seagull with sapphire in the smaller size. It just has something about it.
Absolutely off topic, but I just found my very first watch which is tiny Timex manual wind child's watch. After more than 50 years, the leather band is deteriorated, but when I wound the watch, it actually started!!! Timex... takes a licking, and keeps on ticking!!! :-)
I use a Lad Weather LAD046. Lad Weather is a Japanese fashion brand that just started in 2009 at Kyoto. The watch is a Type B flieger with a Citizen Eco Drive radio synchronization movement. It costed me $100 from Amazon Japan.
Look ma! My Casio is on TV! I love love love the EF527d. My favorite watch in my collection, picked up one this past November. Talk about adding salt to the injury, Jody! I've been lusting after the Nighthawk for sometime now, but Jomashop is out of stock and I refuse to pay the Amazon/eBay prices. I prefer the standard version over the Blue Angels, but at $200 on a bracelet, I'm very tempted. Edit: Never mind, Starbuy doesn't ship internationally.
"Blue Angel" is a special edition of select Citizens pilot watches. The skyhawk, nighthawk and navihawk all have blue angel editions. On another note, the "navihawk" that you featured was actually a blue angel edition nighthawk.
Hey Jody, nice vid. I recently bought a Butler GMT. Pilot watch designed by a pilot. American micro brand, Swiss made, sapphire, screw down crown, Swiss Rhonda quartz gmt movement, 100m wr. I got it for about $130 usd, used. I got it to replace my ailing vostok as a serious beater. Wears about the same as a Rolex explorer, but it is a 40mm. I believe the retail is 349 usd. Its a nice little watch. Regards.
Great list, but you forgot the Strela mechanical column-wheel pilot chronographs (with tachymeter and telemeter), the original of which was the watch worn on the pioneering first ever spacewalk by cosmonaut Alexei Leonov in 1965, arguably of more historical significance than the Omega Speedmaster subsequently being the first watch worn on the Moon. The Strela reissues have the Seagull ST19 column-wheel movement inside, which as said is actually based on the Venus 175 which Seagull bought the tooling for from the Swiss in the 60s. And the original Strela movement? The 3017, which was...based on the Venus 150 (very similar to the 175). So I'd say the ST19, being a column-wheel movement based on the Venus 175, is actually very faithful, both visually and mechanically, to the original Strelas. The reissues are really beautiful watches and a fantastic tribute to an iconic pilot / space watch. I went for the black-dialled CO40CYB model myself, which is a faithful reissue of the same design given to Soviet pilots and cosmonauts up until the late 70s, but with an updated domed sapphire crystal, 100m water resistance, full Superluminova dial (even the subdials!) and display caseback. Best pilot watch under $500 for me, especially considering the original's huge historical significance.
Just a word of warning regarding the Seagull 1968. Make sure the pushers are correctly screwed down and use loctite. I've lost the top pusher and I can't find any place that sells them.
I've got an older Citizen Skyhawk Blue Angels, the ani/digi model. With a main dial, no less than 4 sub dials, 2 digi displays and the slide rule bezel it's utterly baffling in it's complexity. While in a way I love it for that absurd complexity, I rarely wear it and there have been many times where I've considered flipping it and using the proceeds to buy the Seiko. Thanks for reminding me!
I just picked up a brand new Laco Aachen 42mm for £155. There's some kind of online outlet shop in the UK called Victoria Hyde selling what appear to be NOS non hacking versions of the type A and type B. Crazy low price for one of these.
I know I’ll be howled down ,but l have a parnis fliger for the last 2 yrs. Wear it every day, cost me $75 very reliable and spot on time wise,might have to adjust it once every 3 weeks it looses about 2 mins in that time. Excellent finishing and sapphire crystal. I can’t understand why they don’t get the expose they deserve. As for being a copy of something else, one must admit they all look similar.
The Casio is a looker, and the bracelet is not too bad. It was my first serious watch 6 years ago, and still it beats on my wrist as I am writing this. Beware of the size though, 43mm diameter and 51mm L2L are not for everyone. I would have added the Citizen "the pilot" to the list: full titanium, perpetual calendar and all the typical goodies from top Citizens for 500€ when on promotion is something to take into account. Great vid Jody, greets from Spain!
I have the Skyhawk Blue Angels Citizen - similar looks but no stopwatch/radio/3 dials, it does have a large AM/PM hand. Nice watch but I should have bought the bracelet version too. The strap is still not broken in properly even after wearing for a good while and the watch doesn't sit comfy on my wrist. Pity, it doesn't happen often and it is a really nice watch
