Best Pilot Watch for $100

http://tinyurl.com/37qd8w

For those who may be in the market for a decent pilot watch, this
Timex Expedition is the best one I could find with all the features I
wanted, for a reasonable ($54) price.

It's got dual (actually triple) time with Zulu time accessible at the
push of a button, countdown and -up timers, several reminder alarms, a
built-in digital compass (that actually seems to work), and it's all
easily readable with my old(er) eyes.

The buttons are big, and the menu system is more intuitive than my
previous watch, which was also a Timex Expedition (but a different
model/version). It's pure digital, rather than analog/digital like I
wanted, but I discovered that if I wanted Zulu time easily accessible
without screwing up the date, pure digital was the only option.

I looked at every pilot's watch out there, up to and including the
Citizen, Torgoen, and all the other "hot shot pilot" watches, and IMHO
they all suck. What blew me away was how you could easily spend as
much as $5K on a watch that was absollutely not usable for telling
time! To me, that's just an IQ test waiting to be failed...

For $54, this relatively simple watch has every feature (well, except
for an altimeter) that a pilot could want, a comfortable band, and it
even looks decent. Best of all, I can buy roughly 100 of these watches
for the cost of a single "real" pilot's watch!

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/37qd8w

For those who may be in the market for a decent pilot watch, this
Timex Expedition is the best one I could find with all the features I
wanted, for a reasonable ($54) price.

It's got dual (actually triple) time with Zulu time accessible at the
push of a button, countdown and -up timers, several reminder alarms, a
built-in digital compass (that actually seems to work), and it's all
easily readable with my old(er) eyes.

The buttons are big, and the menu system is more intuitive than my
previous watch, which was also a Timex Expedition (but a different
model/version). It's pure digital, rather than analog/digital like I
wanted, but I discovered that if I wanted Zulu time easily accessible
without screwing up the date, pure digital was the only option.

I looked at every pilot's watch out there, up to and including the
Citizen, Torgoen, and all the other "hot shot pilot" watches, and IMHO
they all suck. What blew me away was how you could easily spend as
much as $5K on a watch that was absollutely not usable for telling
time! To me, that's just an IQ test waiting to be failed...

For $54, this relatively simple watch has every feature (well, except
for an altimeter) that a pilot could want, a comfortable band, and it
even looks decent. Best of all, I can buy roughly 100 of these watches
for the cost of a single "real" pilot's watch!

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I'm with you Jay. I have a Brietling vintage pilot's chronograph sitting
upstairs unused now for over 40 years. It's heavy, I have to wind it,
and it's always a possible loss of thousands of dollars if misplaced or
stolen.
Pilots just don't need these anchors on their wrist any more; not with
modern time technology. I have a digital that keeps absolutely perfect
time. I think it cost me 20 bucks years ago.
DH

--
Dudley Henriques

On Nov 15, 2:37 pm, Dudley Henriques wrote:

I'm with you Jay. I have a Brietling vintage pilot's chronograph sitting
upstairs unused now for over 40 years. It's heavy, I have to wind it,
and it's always a possible loss of thousands of dollars if misplaced or
stolen.
Pilots just don't need these anchors on their wrist any more; not with
modern time technology. I have a digital that keeps absolutely perfect
time. I think it cost me 20 bucks years ago.
DH


But Dudley, the fancy "pilot watch" is part of the uniform (costume?)
You can't call yourself a real pilot if you don't have The Watch. You
know, one of those expensive, multi-faced hunks of unobtanium with a
built in ELT that makes women swoon and lesser pilots envious.

On Nov 14, 11:51 pm, Jay Honeck wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/37qd8w

For those who may be in the market for a decent pilot watch, this
Timex Expedition is the best one I could find with all the features I
wanted, for a reasonable ($54) price.
.......
model/version). It's pure digital, rather than analog/digital like I
wanted, but I discovered that if I wanted Zulu time easily accessible

Jay,

Nice watch but the lack of analog feature is a deal-killer for me.
What am I going to do if ATC tell me "Traffic at 2 o'clock" ;-)

I had a Timex Epedition but it died within a year or two (the same
with my very expensive Titanium dive watch and few other fancy
watches) The $5 Walmart analog watch with big numbers and very
visible second hand has served me well for the last several years. I
have a timer for my approaches and hold pattern etc. but I much prefer
glancing at the analog watch while doing the hold.

Of course this cheap watch does not have Zulu time but I don't find
doing a simple addition while flying a big challenge yet. I may
change my mind in a few years ;-)

Hia Longworth

http://tinyurl.com/37qd8w

Nice watch but the lack of analog feature is a deal-killer for me.
What am I going to do if ATC tell me "Traffic at 2 o'clock" ;-)

I *do* miss the analog hands, but I'm getting used to just reading the
number again. It's funny -- having a digital watch has become retro!

Of course this cheap watch does not have Zulu time but I don't find
doing a simple addition while flying a big challenge yet. I may
change my mind in a few years ;-)

Sadly, I find that I often have to check my watch just to know what
*day* it is nowadays.

;-)

Mary and I can never seem to remember whether Zulu is +5 or +6 hours,
cuz it changes with Daylight Savings Time. We also do a fair number of
x-country flights where we're not in our own time zone, so I really
like being able to push a button and see it.

Also, dual time is such a simple (for a digital watch) feature that it
seems silly *not* to have it.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Nov 14, 11:51 pm, Jay Honeck wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/37qd8w

For those who may be in the market for a decent pilot watch, this
Timex Expedition is the best one I could find with all the features I
wanted, for a reasonable ($54) price.

It's got dual (actually triple) time with Zulu time accessible at the
push of a button, countdown and -up timers, several reminder alarms, a
built-in digital compass (that actually seems to work), and it's all
easily readable with my old(er) eyes.

The buttons are big, and the menu system is more intuitive than my
previous watch, which was also a Timex Expedition (but a different
model/version). It's pure digital, rather than analog/digital like I
wanted, but I discovered that if I wanted Zulu time easily accessible
without screwing up the date, pure digital was the only option.

I looked at every pilot's watch out there, up to and including the
Citizen, Torgoen, and all the other "hot shot pilot" watches, and IMHO
they all suck. What blew me away was how you could easily spend as
much as $5K on a watch that was absollutely not usable for telling
time! To me, that's just an IQ test waiting to be failed...

For $54, this relatively simple watch has every feature (well, except
for an altimeter) that a pilot could want, a comfortable band, and it
even looks decent. Best of all, I can buy roughly 100 of these watches
for the cost of a single "real" pilot's watch!

I use a $35 Timex expedition indiglo analog watch with absolutely no
features except a second hand.

My GPS396, which I use in the cockpit, is programmed to show zulu time
in one of the data fields that is always displayed on the map page, so
that's where I get zulu time in the cockpit. When I do duats, etc
briefings I ask for and get local time. When I use the WSI weather
satellite in my flying club, it displays current zulu time at the
bottom of every window.

I went through the whole pilot watch thing a couple of years ago and
finally settled on a Torgoen zulu time watch, one of the low-end ones
that was basically just an analog watch with an extra hand for zulu
time, but it didn't even last a year -- soon the zulu hand was losing
about 1 hour a week, unacceptable. Also, while the design was elegant
in my view, it was harder than I liked to decipher zulu time in real
time. So now I just use my simple and cheap Timex analog watch and
when I need zulu time in the cockpit, I just look at my GPS.

Your watch is a a nice one, but I don't like button pushing on my
watch in the cockpit.

I agree that E6B and other featureitis watches are a joke. The only
pilots I know who wear them got them as gifts from non-pilot loved
ones.

In article ,
Jay Honeck wrote:
Mary and I can never seem to remember whether Zulu is +5 or +6 hours,
cuz it changes with Daylight Savings Time. We also do a fair number of
x-country flights where we're not in our own time zone, so I really
like being able to push a button and see it.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one that has this problem.
My solution has been to set the old wind-up clock in my Cherokee to always
read Zulu time. The watch on my wrist tells me local. Then I don't have to
think about it.

-- Dane

Kingfish wrote:
On Nov 15, 2:37 pm, Dudley Henriques wrote:

I'm with you Jay. I have a Brietling vintage pilot's chronograph sitting
upstairs unused now for over 40 years. It's heavy, I have to wind it,
and it's always a possible loss of thousands of dollars if misplaced or
stolen.
Pilots just don't need these anchors on their wrist any more; not with
modern time technology. I have a digital that keeps absolutely perfect
time. I think it cost me 20 bucks years ago.
DH


But Dudley, the fancy "pilot watch" is part of the uniform (costume?)
You can't call yourself a real pilot if you don't have The Watch. You
know, one of those expensive, multi-faced hunks of unobtanium with a
built in ELT that makes women swoon and lesser pilots envious.

That's what the stuffed Teddy Bear I always carried with me was for.
:-))

--
Dudley Henriques

My solution has been to set the old wind-up clock in my Cherokee to always
read Zulu time. The watch on my wrist tells me local. Then I don't have to
think about it.

We do the same thing, but I've found that this doesn't help me one
damned bit when I'm in the FBO checking weather...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote in news:cea46de1-bee9-4a68-92ab-
:


Sadly, I find that I often have to check my watch just to know what
*day* it is nowadays.

Maybe you should also get a tatto next to it to remind you of which planet
you're on.


Bertie