"If you're a pilot and you're in the water, you've got bigger issues than your watch not working." ha ha ha! There is nothing more hilarious than truth sometimes.
I love the fact that you go in detail describing the finish, like the sand blast casing for example or the lume shots those are critical for making a decision from half way around the world ...
Oddly, if the Messherschmidtt pilot watch is really called the Model ME 209, the aircraft featured on the watch dial isn't the ME209, a single piston engine racing aircraft. Rather it's the ME262, a ground-breaking twin engine jet fighter aircraft with a very distinctive triangular fuselage cross section when viewed head-on. Sorry, I'll check my aviation geek credentials at the door next time. Love your reviews, Mark!
The aircraft shown in frontal profile is an Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed Schwalbe in fighter versions, or Sturmvogel in fighter-bomber versions, was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft.
Thanks for a good review of these low cost aviation watches. Some pretty nice ones here, but both Aristo and the Messerschmitt have pretty severe misalignment of the second hand, which would drive me crazy.
I didn't even bother looking to see that beautiful orient diver watch. This is definitely a time I wish I had, even at your regular pricr it can't be beat.
Aeromatic had proved that even at budget level, its movement can be hacked. Laco's 21 miyota movement can't. Which is such a disappointment considering Laco was historically one of the 5 companies that produced flieger watches for the Luftwaffe. The hacking feature, historically, is a crucial feature of these watches.
Best value pilots watch if you can find one used is the Prometheus Recon 5. Dressed Unitas manual wind, Swiss made also. I bought mine pre release for $350 but they retailed new for $500 or so. Had mine 8 years and it never misses a beat.
Can you imagine a cheap watch not being perfect? If you want a quality inexpensive watch, then buy a Seiko. Similarly, Stowa makes great Fliegers at a price that reflects German labor costs. Some people just want something in the middle. There is no reason to complain about the quality of cheap stuff, unless you are one of those "everyone should only buy Japanese watches" people. That is okay, the best watches really are made in Japan (or at least the best watches that cost less than a used car), but there exist different people with different preference than you or I or the next guy. Who am I, or you, to criticize?
The A Uhr....is actually an earlier model to the B Uhr....as a lot of the B Uhr watches didn't start entering service by RLM until very late 1940 to the beginning of the year 1941.
Thanks Marc. I'm ever so glad that I bought the Orient with the deep blue dial from you. Great watch, Great lume and good movement accuracy to say nothing of the fair price. Keep up these sorts of comparison videos and you're videos on watch terminology and movement characteristics. Thanks.
Hello, On the Messerschmitt wrist watch, the image on the face is a ME 262. It is a late WWII jet aircraft. The ME 209 was propeller driven. The link below for the watch leads to the correct web-page with the correct name. Hopefully, this will clarify a minor mix-up with the name of the watch. Thanks for all of these new videos. :-)
Really nice watches but do like the Orient watch. I own a couple of pilots watches at the moment by Citizen and Seiko which I wear often. Both came with military watch straps which I immediately changed to leather straps which I found to be much better. Thanks for posting this video. Am definately looking to purchase an Orient watch at a future date. Not many stockists of Orient in the UK but are widely available on Amazon UK. I have just ordered an Orient 3 star automatic from Amazon UK for around £69. Never owned one before so dont know what they are like yet.
Nice video, but I have to agree with the guys moaning about the seconds hand on the Messerschmitt, it would really bug me for the hand being almost exactly landing imbetween the indices. Seiko knock out really nice, 'Made in Japan' Flieger/ military exhibition case back watches for well under $€£150. I guess I'd only get German if I was spending over a grand on a Sinn or better still, the superb Damasko.
That's a pretty common thing with quartz movements. If you watch it, the seconds hand it closer to hitting the marks between 0 and 30 seconds, then further off from 31-60. I've always assumed this is due to a very slight amount of 'play' in the movement and actual gravity having an effect on the hand. IMO, I don't obsess over my quartz watches that act this way... but watching a higher beat rate automatic is SO satisfying!
Brad Taylor "That's a pretty common thing with quartz movements." -- Not the ones I have seen, only very sloppy ones. My $35 Casio analog quartz hits the indices perfectly.
mountainhobo I do agree, but a Casio has much greater tooling in its assembly as its a super-mass produced watch, whereas these are assembled by hand. The registration, like many things, bothers some and not others.
Another evidence to show that paying more for the "made in (some prestigious country)" is not worth it. One should look at the product itself, not the branding or packaging.
I mean, at least something about being a pilot is cheap; I had to take out a $12,000 loan just to get past private pilot (I never bothered as cool as it would've been, I didn't feel like jumping in $100,000+ worth of debt just to make $22,000 a year).
The Orient is one of the 2 in this bunch that has a mechanical (ticking spring wound) movement. It moves the second hand 6 times a second but it is less accurate than the quartz watches with their 1 per second swing. Some people prefer one or the other. I don't find the continuous movement to be an improvement over the quartz style move - stop - move.
What do you think about marathon? I love the standard field watch look and tritium tunes! Its like $350 for an automatic and DOUBLE that for an ETA based movement. Idk if its worth the extra money
I am flying with £50 flieger with a handwinding Seagull St36 movement with perfect accuracy and a 56 hour power reserve. Mine is the type A flieger dial. Type B is also available.
Great video full of good info on some watches I knew nothing about. I will stick with an affordable flieger and then I can afford to fly further. Thank you L I W.
which do you think is a better option, the Orient pilot watch shown in this video or the Aeromatic with the Seiko movement that you have available in your store_
Was wondering, what is the difference between these pilot watches and field watches? (not talking about aviator chronograph with tachymètre, etc). In terms of design/visual characteristics I mean.
Conan McFly I think of a pilot watch almost like a dial in the panel deck, but in your wrist. Basically big numbers and markers and big size, above 40 and up to 55 mm. As a pilot you are in a cabin so no water resistance nor scratch, just easy to read dial. On the other hand, a field watch must be rugged. You are going to be on the soil sometimes, it will rain on you, sometimes under water, and you are going to smash it a lot of times. Size is no big deal so maybe under 40 mm is gonna be ok.
Pretty sure the heritage of "aviator" watch is the design sent by the Luftwaffe to German watch manufacturers before and during WWII. The very, very specific layout and marking patterns of "flieger" (German for Pilot) watches are derive from that source.
've had my seiko watch for a while and it worked perfectly.For example after a week it could've been still ~in time. My watch got couple hits and dropped floor and it kinda broke. Gained about 3 minutes per day. I repaired it at seiko service center and it cost 75e. The problem is that it gains still 24-30 seconds per day. My watch has 4r35b movement. I've been usin this for 2 weeks now. What should I do?
just purchased Orient Aviation Automatic watch and have loved it so far. This is my first automatic watch and I have one question. How Long before Orient Aviation Automatic watch stops if I stop wearing.? I was wondering if I can take it off when I sleep(7-8 hours).
The made in Germany requirements are far less strict than compared to Swiss made. Even if the movement is from ETA Switzerland, made in Germany is still applied. Vise versa that would not qualify for Swiss made!
thats not how watch water resistance is measured - 5 atms or 50 meters means its rated as basically showerproof - even surface swimming whilst wearing it would be a bit of a push / risk. you'd need an ISO rated dive watch to be guaranteed watertight at 165ft
BTW: It is NOT pronounced as "Wollmer" like you do. W in European languages is pronounced like English speakers mistakenly do the V, which should be spoken the same as an F! The company name is properly pronounced as "Follmer". The V is pronounced like an F in German, because the Roman alphabet had no F, just a V, so they are effectively the same!
LIW, not saying you do it as I love your channel, but what I don’t get is you show 5 or so pilot watches, not one word about homage or fake watches. They all,look the same but since they aren’t Chinese so it never gets said. I live in China and I’m amazed at Chinese Seagull and Parnis and San Martin who make these watches with good movements with sapphire and screw crowns for 80-200$. But everyone says they are fake and crap. I’ll buy 3 decent Chinese watches for one European
Ok. Yet, nowadays they are still expensive (400-700+ €) Compared with the few 50-120max $ used in operation by military personnel. Ok. Laco watches are damn beautiful, but still. Weren't there cheaper accurate watches during the late 30s?
Nobody in the 1930s had anything remotely approaching the productive capacity of the world today. EVERYTHING technological was simply more expensive. Our material standard of living is much, much higher than it was back them. To actually answer your question, you would have to get data on how much those watches actually cost. And then compare that to the price level of the time. You simply cannot compare the relative priciness of items across vastly different environments without accounting for a lot of differences. The purchasing habits of today's consumers and military personnel tell us nothing about the actual cost of watches in the 1930s.
PLEASE! Modern lume is nothing but a 5 minute gimmick, because it is not radio-active anymore, and that is a good thing! It is useless, because it will NOT glow all night, so why bother? A few generations of assembly workers in the early and up to mid 20th century ended up with cancer and early deaths because of radium lume-paint. The ladies were even licking their radium-soaked paint brushes to keep them pointy for fine detailing, and lost their jaws, true story there! That lume glowed for maybe 10 or 15 years until the paint was literally burnt, which is why those old dials and hands all looked brown, instead of greenish white, and then these watches were still radio-active. Tritium tubes are supposedly not dangerous, but are still radio-active, and are used only by commando-type unit militaries now, and they don't expect their soldiers to live forever, but charge into battle and die! (I can say that, as a veteran myself!) I would MUCH rather see high contrast hands in solid black on light dials, or solid white on dark dials, than silly lume strips in thin skeleton frames, that often make reading watches harder for aging eyes!
Makes me laugh when you see people with a muzzle slung under their chin, so that they can smoke! The harm from one cig is far worse than a day associating with the general population.