Post pics of your watches Part II

micks_address · 06-01-2023 01:44PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120073696#Comment_120073696

I might be selling my stowa flieger soon if you'd be interested? Manual wind. Unitas movement

Cheers,

Mick

893bet · 06-01-2023 02:01PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120073379#Comment_120073379

I don’t own one so I am excluded.

so I am not not at all insulted and wouldn’t be if I did own one really. Just slightly amused at the reverse snobbery.

Snobbery is bad in your post. Reverse snobbery is ok. Lol

893bet · 06-01-2023 02:05PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120073511#Comment_120073511

I am stupid and greedy. Should have flipped the Patek at the top. I knew it was the top.

But I love it and what really ducked me was the 25 year anniversary and talk of discontinuation. Greed! But even then I may not have sold. Like I said I like the watch.

Wibbs · 06-01-2023 02:13PM

Speaking of German Air ministry watches... Hasn't had that much wrist time of late. I forgot how daftly accurate it was.

fulladapipes · 06-01-2023 03:01PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120074032#Comment_120074032

I'm beginning to look a lot more closely at those simple ~~three~~ two-handers with the small seconds. Longines brought out a version recently, but it was a ridiculous 43mm. I would be quite opposite-of-adverse to something with a small seconds, preferably not new and not near 43mm.

In the meantime, I've an incoming IWC Mark XV which I'm looking forward to (if the Dutch guy ever puts it in the mail)...

Fitz II · 06-01-2023 03:11PM

Stupid sexy Rolex Fans

Wibbs · 06-01-2023 04:08PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120074364#Comment_120074364

One of my regrets is not buying one of the 50's issued ones when the prices weren't daft. Like 1000-1500 quid not daft. Then again when they weren't daft there were also horror stories of frankenwatches, wrong crowns etc and this was before the scholarship ramped up. Chances are I would have bought a dogs dinner. 😁 Still they are a gorgeous design and IWC make some lovely movements too and have great records going back to the egg. And an example of a company that were hugely popular in both vintage and new markets who have nigh on vanished from the Current Trends.

Deep Thought · 06-01-2023 06:04PM

What’s size is she? @micks_address

Deep Thought · 06-01-2023 06:08PM

See.. I think 43mm is bang on for a flieger. When I had my IWC , it was 43mm and perfect, easy to read the dial..thus why a lot of WWII were really big.. 45mm +

I’d say your incoming IWC is small?

micks_address · 06-01-2023 06:26PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120075269#Comment_120075269

41mm Stowa

Flieger Klassik 6498

Wibbs · 06-01-2023 06:49PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120075295#Comment_120075295

Oddly enough DT it was as much a geographical/cultural thing. The bulk of Europe tended towards big pilot's watches, 38-40mm+, the German B-Uhrs tapping out at 55mm. However the British didn't. They were more like 35mm, or smaller. In America pre war watches like Longines Hour Angles were big buggers 50mm kinda thing, but by the war itself American pilot's watches were well under 35mm. Longines even sold a 28mm Hour Angle(of sorts). Maybe that was part of the plan; if you could read the thing at arms length your eyesight was deemed good enough to be a pilot. 😁

A large part(no pun) of the drive for bigger watches was simply more accuracy with the tech of the time. Slap in a pocketwatch movement with the much larger balance and accuracy was more achievable out of the box.

david · 06-01-2023 06:59PM

Beauty Mick - pm me a price?

Not like I need to buy more of your watches or anything 😂

Deep Thought · 06-01-2023 07:26PM

wowzers.. some great info there..can’t see the benefit of a 28mm Flieger.. surely things like vibration would have an effect when looking at it.

Wibbs · 06-01-2023 08:10PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120075595#Comment_120075595

I'd agree. I suspect by WW2, few enough pilots wore specific "pilot's watches" and wore shop bought watches that looked military, or just wore their civilian watches.

The B-Uhrs for example though known today as Flieger(pilot) are navigator's watches. Beobachtungsuhren – B-Uhren(observational watches). Navigators needed accurate timepieces for their job, but even there they were also using radio vectoring and timekeeping too. Actually issued specific pilots watches among WW2 forces are scarce enough. The UK Air Ministry watches being one. In general fighter pilots needed a watch to tell them the time outside the cockpit. Some did look for chronographs. The German fighter pilots for example, who bought Hanhart flyback chronos and may have bought them at the unit level. One reason in the Battle of Britain was their mount's very much reduced flying and fighting time over the UK so they needed to keep an eye on that(other than the Japanese Zero and the later Mustang which could both run on the smell of an oily rag, most fighters were high performance interceptors with very limited range. For the Germans this was made worse by their command's insistence they should fly at the same - inefficient for them - speed as their bombers).

Post war and for the jet age specific Pilot type watches were issued alright; the Dodane, Auricoste etc French XX series, the Zenith, Breitling and Leonidas CP's for the Italian fighter and helicopter jockeys, the various examples for the German airforce, Heuer, Hanhart, Junghans, later on Tutima etc.

These type of watches were (pretty much)all two register chronographs to a set pattern, 38-43mm, black arabic numeral dials, radium/tritium lume, bidirectional rotating bezels and handwound with the flyback complication. The latter was seen as vital for instrument flying which needed to be accurate to the second, where having to stop and reset the chrono would add seconds that could throw navigation off, or when following a radio signal, again to the second. Funny enough very few chronographs on their aircraft's dashboards had this function.

The UK had some non chronograph pilot's watches like those IWC and Omegas, but again these seemed to have been much more aimed at navigators. Watches like GMT's were squarely aimed at the civilian airline pilots of the new jet age because they were often changing timezones and would have been as much use as tits on a bull to the fighter jockeys, because if they had crossed timezones they were likely lost, running on fumes and about to land in the Soviet Union. 😁

Ian OB · 07-01-2023 04:53PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120041323#Comment_120041323

So, its time to try & sort this out. Hope all these aren't needed.

They weren't thank God. A few new words were invented though. Unfortunately, the replacement stem is a bit on the long side.

I'll come back to it next weekend.

Lorddrakul · 09-01-2023 01:46PM

Quick update on the Elgin.

Despite the robust, near agricultural nature of the Miyota 21-jewel 8215 movement, after I adjusted the beat error to 0, it now runs between +2 and +3 on the wrist over the last 4 days. So even though the amplitude suggests the mainspring might be fairly old, it is running pretty well.

And while it most definitely exhibits the flaw/charming feature of a noisy rotor, it hasn't displayed, as yet, the second hand stutter that it is also sometimes noted for.

That's a win all round, methinks.

There is one oddity, though, The lovely blue lume is still quite strong, except for one index, which is completely dead.

fulladapipes · 09-01-2023 03:22PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120075295#Comment_120075295

Yep, small for a flieger at 38mm. The Mark XII (and Mark XI) before it was 36mm; the Mark XVI after it was 39mm. And from then on they went 40mm+ as far as I can see. There is still 36mm model though, and a 39mm, but they are by far in the minority.

I used to like larger watches (up to a 44.25mm Omega), but after wearing the 36mm Datejust and Explorer I kind of got used to the smaller size, to the extent that even the normal enough 42mm Speedmaster seemed too big. It's not, but my head went there. So, now I'm 40mm max.

I'm looking forward to this IWC - the larger sizes always put me off them, so I was delighted to find a 38mm.

fulladapipes · 10-01-2023 09:13PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120086195#Comment_120086195

So, the Dutchman put the IWC in the post and it landed today. It's a IWC Mark XV (model: 3253), just serviced with a new IWC leather strap. The 38mm size is good on my 6.75" wrist and there seems to be some anti reflective coating on at least one side of the sapphire. This is the first watch I've had in many years with numbers; I'm usually much more fond of stick indices.

NIMAN · 10-01-2023 09:50PM

That's class. Enjoy.

IrishPlayer · 12-01-2023 05:24AM

A dream come true! Spending the week in Biel / Bienne Switzerland training on the new movement line after starting a new position in Movement Assembly

Horage is what the new Bremont ENG movement is based on and where I am doing the training. Here's a link to their site

https://www.horage.com/

Some more from today, continuing on with the movement and part making

Some highlights of the town

Lorddrakul · 12-01-2023 10:02AM

Good luck to you, @IrishPlayer!

You seem to be making rapid progress and enjoying it.

And letting us all live vicariously with your excellent retelling. :)

unkel · 13-01-2023 08:35PM

My first Breitling. Very pleasantly surprised. I even like the rubber

scwazrh · 13-01-2023 09:11PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120105010#Comment_120105010

I love the super ocean , have nearly bought one a few times now.Nice change from the blue dial you daily

traco · 14-01-2023 01:02PM

That is a lovely Breitling, nice and simple. I'm not a fan of their flashy stuff at all, just too busy for me.

Pulled this out today as it will be 20 years old this year. Had a new power cell fitted last year but I'll need to chase that up. It could be 9 months or more and it wasn't really worn but it seemed to be stopped. Usually it would go into a pseudo sleep mode with the second hand jumping several seconds at a time and when you put it on it would kick into normal operation. It didn't do that this time but seems OK now after much manual rotating to power it up a bit. Will wear it all week and see if that sorts it out.

Anyway - not to everyone's taste but I like it.

micks_address · 14-01-2023 01:16PM

Lovely unkel. Very restrained for a breitling some of them are just super busy dials etc

unkel · 14-01-2023 02:00PM

Exactly yeah that's why I was never that attracted to Breitling although I liked the super ocean. Some of them are incredibly busy as if wanting to break the world record for most words on a dial 😁

Interesting that the likes of Breitling and Tudor have now moved into the entry level luxury watch segment. This used to be solely occupied by Omega, but their prices have gone to lalaland new and second hand. I bought a Seamaster pro 41 automatic back in 2017 for €975, those days are long gone

Cyrus · 14-01-2023 03:50PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120107072#Comment_120107072

I had one of those back in the day, probably my first decent watch!

banie01 · 14-01-2023 03:50PM

Really like that Breitling Unk. I've owned the Superocean 42 and its a watch I still miss. The clean dial and the colour are a great combo.

traco · 14-01-2023 03:56PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120108032#Comment_120108032

Same for me - bought it on a business trip in Hong Kong. Think it was about USD$350 equivalent. Box and stuff long gone as it was a daily wearer for a lot of years.

Mrs Traco also bought me a Sector at some point and I wore the strap out on that. Weirs said it couldn't be repaierd. Wonder if its still in a box somewhere?

14-01-2023 08:33PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120050766#Comment_120050766

One of the nicest watches I've seen on here.

Post pics of your watches Part II

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