Are there any "pilot" watches that are actually helpful for pilots?

I am in the market for a new watch and thought that if I am going to
be a pilot I would see if there was something that I could use to
assist me in flying. My first thought was that something that was
Indiglo with larger numbers so I could see it easily at night would be
good as would one with two time zones so I can have one set to Zulu
and one to local. A countdown timer and stopwatch might come in
handy.

I went looking on the 'Net and found watches with compasses and
altimeters and even an E6-B but I question the value of those. If I
am ever in a situation where my altimeter, gyro, wet compass and both
GPS units , one a battery powered 96C, that show me heading and
altitude in the plane have failed I should lose my license for not
putting down long before I have to rely on a compass or altimeter in a
wris****ch.

For the people who have flown, have any of you found a watch with any
special features that actually helped you in performing your piloting
tasks?

Thanks

On Nov 16, 8:31 am, es330td wrote:
I am in the market for a new watch and thought that if I am going to
be a pilot I would see if there was something that I could use to
assist me in flying. My first thought was that something that was
Indiglo with larger numbers so I could see it easily at night would be
good as would one with two time zones so I can have one set to Zulu
and one to local. A countdown timer and stopwatch might come in
handy.

I went looking on the 'Net and found watches with compasses and
altimeters and even an E6-B but I question the value of those. If I
am ever in a situation where my altimeter, gyro, wet compass and both
GPS units , one a battery powered 96C, that show me heading and
altitude in the plane have failed I should lose my license for not
putting down long before I have to rely on a compass or altimeter in a
wris****ch.

For the people who have flown, have any of you found a watch with any
special features that actually helped you in performing your piloting
tasks?

Thanks

You must be joking. We dont' buy pilot watches to tell time - like the
replica AVG bomber jackets, they're strictly a fashion accessory...
(I'd mortgage my mother for a Breitling Navitimer though)

Silly noob. : )

Nice guitar BTW. I have a Les Paul meself.

Kingfish wrote:
On Nov 16, 8:31 am, es330td wrote:
I am in the market for a new watch and thought that if I am going to
be a pilot I would see if there was something that I could use to
assist me in flying. My first thought was that something that was
Indiglo with larger numbers so I could see it easily at night would be
good as would one with two time zones so I can have one set to Zulu
and one to local. A countdown timer and stopwatch might come in
handy.

I went looking on the 'Net and found watches with compasses and
altimeters and even an E6-B but I question the value of those. If I
am ever in a situation where my altimeter, gyro, wet compass and both
GPS units , one a battery powered 96C, that show me heading and
altitude in the plane have failed I should lose my license for not
putting down long before I have to rely on a compass or altimeter in a
wris****ch.

For the people who have flown, have any of you found a watch with any
special features that actually helped you in performing your piloting
tasks?

Thanks

You must be joking. We dont' buy pilot watches to tell time - like the
replica AVG bomber jackets, they're strictly a fashion accessory...
(I'd mortgage my mother for a Breitling Navitimer though)

Silly noob. : )

Nice guitar BTW. I have a Les Paul meself.

I have a Brietling Navitimer available for sale if you want it.

--
Dudley Henriques

On Nov 16, 11:06 am, Dudley Henriques wrote:

I have a Brietling Navitimer available for sale if you want it.

That is a very nice watch but I'd be afraid to wear a watch like
that. It would be like driving a brand new Ferrari. I'd be too afraid
of it getting dinged or damaged to ever take it out. Thanks for the
offer, though.

On Nov 16, 11:19 am, es330td wrote:
On Nov 16, 11:06 am, Dudley Henriques wrote:

I have a Brietling Navitimer available for sale if you want it.

That is a very nice watch but I'd be afraid to wear a watch like
that. It would be like driving a brand new Ferrari. I'd be too afraid
of it getting dinged or damaged to ever take it out. Thanks for the
offer, though.

I just realized you were talking to Kingfish, not me. Sorry.

On Nov 16, 10:07 am, Kingfish wrote:
On Nov 16, 8:31 am, es330td wrote:





I am in the market for a new watch and thought that if I am going to
be a pilot I would see if there was something that I could use to
assist me in flying. My first thought was that something that was
Indiglo with larger numbers so I could see it easily at night would be
good as would one with two time zones so I can have one set to Zulu
and one to local. A countdown timer and stopwatch might come in
handy.

I went looking on the 'Net and found watches with compasses and
altimeters and even an E6-B but I question the value of those. If I
am ever in a situation where my altimeter, gyro, wet compass and both
GPS units , one a battery powered 96C, that show me heading and
altitude in the plane have failed I should lose my license for not
putting down long before I have to rely on a compass or altimeter in a
wris****ch.

For the people who have flown, have any of you found a watch with any
special features that actually helped you in performing your piloting
tasks?

Thanks

You must be joking. We dont' buy pilot watches to tell time - like the
replica AVG bomber jackets, they're strictly a fashion accessory...

Got it. Unfortunately, I can either pay to be a pilot or look like a
pilot. I'm going to have to go with giving my money to the flying
club so I can fly in a rectangle at $90/hr.

Nice guitar BTW. I have a Les Paul meself.- Hide quoted text -

Thanks. Not many people even know what that is if I tell them, much
less recognize it from my username. I can't do it justice yet but I
do appreciate what I am playing on.

On Nov 16, 11:29 am, es330td wrote:
On Nov 16, 10:07 am, Kingfish wrote:





On Nov 16, 8:31 am, es330td wrote:

I am in the market for a new watch and thought that if I am going to
be a pilot I would see if there was something that I could use to
assist me in flying. My first thought was that something that was
Indiglo with larger numbers so I could see it easily at night would be
good as would one with two time zones so I can have one set to Zulu
and one to local. A countdown timer and stopwatch might come in
handy.

I went looking on the 'Net and found watches with compasses and
altimeters and even an E6-B but I question the value of those. If I
am ever in a situation where my altimeter, gyro, wet compass and both
GPS units , one a battery powered 96C, that show me heading and
altitude in the plane have failed I should lose my license for not
putting down long before I have to rely on a compass or altimeter in a
wris****ch.

For the people who have flown, have any of you found a watch with any
special features that actually helped you in performing your piloting
tasks?

Thanks

You must be joking. We dont' buy pilot watches to tell time - like the
replica AVG bomber jackets, they're strictly a fashion accessory...

Got it. Unfortunately, I can either pay to be a pilot or look like a
pilot. I'm going to have to go with giving my money to the flying
club so I can fly in a rectangle at $90/hr.

Nice guitar BTW. I have a Les Paul meself.- Hide quoted text -

Thanks. Not many people even know what that is if I tell them, much
less recognize it from my username. I can't do it justice yet but I
do appreciate what I am playing on.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Allegedly, some guys chose to wore this type of watch to make
themselves more attractive to the opposite sex. I have worn a very
nice Seiko aviator watch for about the past 16 years, however I find
that I remain as repugnant as ever to members of the opposite sex. Of
course, as always, your mileage may vary.

Take care . . .

John

On 2007-11-16 07:07:01 -0800, Kingfish said:


You must be joking. We dont' buy pilot watches to tell time - like the
replica AVG bomber jackets, they're strictly a fashion accessory...
(I'd mortgage my mother for a Breitling Navitimer though)

A real leather aviator's jacket made of goat leather is useful for the
same reasons that the originals we tough as nails, lets you lie on
your back on the ramp without being discomfited by sharp stones or hot
pavement, does not absorb oil stains easily, it actually keeps you warm
without being too hot, and it is resistant to weather and wind. It
should not have a seam anywhere on the back, as this lets in both
moisture and cold air.

OTOH, I find that a Tilley works well as an aviator's hat. People make
fun of my 'fishing hat,' but I will never part with it.

--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor

On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:31:45 -0800 (PST), es330td
wrote in
:

For the people who have flown, have any of you found a watch with any
special features that actually helped you in performing your piloting
tasks?

Here's a wris****ch you can wear in the vacuum of space:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_S...r_Professional
The Omega Speedmaster was the first watch to be worn on the Moon
with Apollo 11. In April 1970, it was used to manually time the
secondary rocket burns to bring the crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft
back to Earth.

For the people who have flown, have any of you found a watch with any
special features that actually helped you in performing your piloting
tasks?

I just went through this exercise (see "Best Pilot Watch for $100")
and here's what I chose:

http://tinyurl.com/37qd8w

Here's my description from that earlier thread:

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!

So far, I'm liking it a lot.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"