AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2012 - 100

DOGFIGHT | TIME ON THEIR HANDS
Editor at Large Tom Horne and Senior Editor Dave Hirschman have a lot of things in common: lots of ratings, lots of experience in lots of airplane models—and lots of opinions (as well as similar haircuts). We last turned them loose on the topic of the perfect training aircraft (see “Dogfight: The Perfect Trainer,” January 2012 AOPA Pilot) and the response to two different schools of thought on this topic garnered interesting opinions from a large number of readers. So we launch them into another “Dogfight”—we hope you’ll enjoy these two takes on a topic, and keep those cards and letters coming. —Ed.

Go analog—and in style
Why self-winding analog pilot watches are my favorite
< BY THOMAS A. HORNE

ver the past decades I’ve had a number of wristwatches. Many were cheapo digital models that cost $20 to $50. I always found them characterless and needlessly complex. Sure, they had lots of features and functions, but some of them were difficult to program and had so many buttons that it was easy to call up a display you didn’t want—and then it was difficult to find the way back to the original display. Sometimes I’d try one mode, only to find myself looking at a set of endlessly flashing digits. Most of the functions I didn’t need or want. The odd thing was that I kept losing these small rectangular slabs of plastic. Maybe this was subconscious. It’s hard to get worked up over something that always seems to be a giveaway. So I gravitated toward analog-display watches. I want to see hour, minute, and second hands. In a glance you can tell time—be it current, elapsed, or time to go. Since I became a pilot, 36 years ago, I never went back to pure digital watches. Analog watches aren’t all alike, of course. Of my current low-to-mediumpriced watch collection, there’s a genuine Swiss Army watch ($89); an old day/date Seiko ($125); and a beat-up $40 Casio. As I became more involved in aviation, I was drawn to analog watches aimed at pilots. First I bought a Heuer that had E6B functions and a 12-hour timer. Then I bought a Glycine watch with a 24-hour internal face and another rotating 24-hour bezel; this meant I could keep better track of Zulu and local time zones with a single look. All are battery powered, which is a kind of curse. Some day those batteries
AOPA PILOT •

will die, and I’ll be left with the chore of finding replacements and then installing them. If you want the watch to remain water-resistant or waterproof, that means a trip to a shop that can pull off the job— for a price, of course. Many times, that price is more than the watch is worth. Recently I bought what I think is a classic among pilot watches: a Breitling Navitimer. I like its looks, and like that it’s a self-winding watch—no battery worries. I also like its 12-hour timer and other functions. Sure, every five years or so it’ll need a cleaning (this costs around $500), but you can say the same about Rolexes, or the self- or hand-winding Tutima pilot watches, and others of the same caliber. But these are all great watches. I appreciate their histories, admire their designs, and like the traditions these lines preserve. Are they as atomic-accurate as a $49.95 digital horror at Walmart? Probably not, but their accuracies are within a minute a week, based on my experience. I synchronize my watches to a standard source every few days. To me, these timepieces are much more than mere watches—and not just because I enjoy them for aesthetic reasons. The Swiss Army watch was bought at a booth during my first pilgrimage to Oshkosh, and it was made before the Wenger firm took over the brand. After that, the words “Swiss Army” were no longer printed on the watch face. The day/ date Seiko was bought in Paris when my digital watch’s battery died. Its days are in French. When I look at it I think of the first of many visits I made to the Robin Aircraft factory in Dijon. I bought my Heuer from

Sporty’s Pilot Shop, in 1985 for $350. This was before the Heuer brand became Tag-Heuer, so it is becoming rarer and rarer. I look at it and think of the 28-plus transAtlantic crossings it has timed, how many tank switchings it nudged me to make, and how I surpassed its 12-hour timer limit in a Piper Seminole—on a 12+45 nonstop leg one winter night, from St. Johns to Guernsey. The battery died once, and moisture got inside. Replacing the battery, drying it, and resealing the watch set me back $1,200. I paid it. What was I going to do— throw it away? Nowadays I alternate between the Heuer and the Navitimer—and sometimes I’ll also wear the Glycine. Wearing two watches gets the wisecracks, but at least I have Zulu time straight! And yes, I know that Breitling’s Navitimer World, and most Rolexes and other überwatches, have separate Zulu-time hands. Some day, when I head west, I’ll leave these watches to my wife and son, and hope that they’ll share in their enjoyment. Email the author at tom.horne@aopa.org.

100 • APRIL 2012

AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2012

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