Raffi Boyadjian | 101 Reasons Why Watches Are Great: Marking a Personal Achievement
Raffi Boyadjian | 101 Reasons Why Watches Are Great: Marking a Personal Achievement
Watch enthusiasts the world over love timepieces for their technical innovations and designs. The reason behind buying a watch, however, is usually far more personal. Sometimes, it’s to mark a specific achievement or life event that we would like to remember, no matter how big or small. Every watch tells a story of people and moments that goes above and beyond the time it displays.
Raffi Boyadjian | Charles Lindbergh and the Hour Angle Watch
One of the earliest pilot-specific complications was developed at Longines. In 1927, the Swiss manufacturer partnered with American navigation specialist and aviation pioneer Philip Van Horn Weems to created the so-called Weems Second Setting Watch. The timepiece features a rotating disc in the center of the dial that can be synchronized with a time signal. The watch went on to inspire the development of the famous Longines Lindbergh Hour Angle watch in 1931 and still remains a cornerstone of the Longines portfolio to this day.
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh approached Longines in the aftermath of his historic transatlantic flight. He wanted to develop a watch that pilots could use to calculate their current position over the open sea — thus, the Hour Angle watch was born. Together with a sextant and astronomical tables, navigators were able to use the watch to determine their current longitude and latitude. The Lindbergh Hour Angle watch likewise remains a part of the Longines catalog.
Before computers made their way into cockpits, pilots had to manually calculate their course, fuel consumption, rates of descent and climb, and flight path deviations. This was done using a slide rule for multiplication and division as well as figuring squares and square roots and solving logarithmic and trigonometric equations.
Raffi Boyadjian | Watches With Altimeters and Compasses
You’d be hard pressed to find a cockpit without an altimeter. It tells pilots their current altitude as well as whether the aircraft is ascending or descending. This is obviously essential information during flights with poor visibility. Several timepieces are also equipped with this feature. Most manufacturers have turned to electronic measuring instruments, such as the watches in Tissot’s T-Touch line. However, others have created fully mechanical altimeters. Such is the case with Swiss manufacturer Oris’ Big Crown Altimeter. This watch has a small metal capsule within it that is similar to the kind found in an aneroid barometer. The capsule reacts to changes in air pressure and expands or contracts accordingly. This movement is then transferred to a needle that displays the pressure and corresponding height on a scale.
Raffi Boyadjian | What distinguishes a pilot’s watch from other timepieces?
Pilot’s watches came to be as a result of early pilots needing a way to tell time without taking their hands off the flight controls. The simplest solution was to mount a pocket watch on a strap they could wear around their wrist. Watches like the Cartier Santos from 1904 were a sensation in the heyday of the pocket watch, ushering in the era of the wristwatch.
But the strap isn’t the only factor that has maintained the popularity of pilot’s watches. These timepieces are considered robust, reliable, and highly-functional tool watches. They often feature streamlined, minimalist dials with contrasting dark backgrounds and light numerals, hands, and indices, making them readable in varied lighting conditions.
Raffi Boyadjian Pilot’s Watches With Unusual Functions Raffi Boyadjian | The advent of aviation at the start of the 20th century gave way to a whole new genre of watch: the pilot’s watch. Some mode…
Pilot’s Watches With Unusual Functions
Raffi Boyadjian | The advent of aviation at the start of the 20th century gave way to a whole new genre of watch: the pilot’s watch. Some models feature additional functions you won’t find on everyday watches. Find out more about these unusual features and whether these watches make worthwhile purchases.
Raffi Boyadjian | What distinguishes a pilot’s watch from other timepieces?
Pilot’s watches came to be as a result of early pilots needing a way to tell time without taking their hands off the flight controls. The simplest solution was to mount a pocket watch on a strap they could wear around their wrist. Watches like the Cartier Santos from 1904 were a sensation in the heyday of the pocket watch, ushering in the era of the wristwatch.
Raffi Boyadjian Made for Extreme Conditions: The Toughest Watches on the Market, Image: Bert Buijsrogge Watches are exposed to changing conditions throughout the day. If you’re a typical desk diver…
Made for Extreme Conditions: The Toughest Watches on the Market, Image: Bert Buijsrogge
Watches are exposed to changing conditions throughout the day. If you’re a typical desk diver, you won’t have much to worry about in terms of keeping your timepiece safe, but the more active you are, the more your watch has to endure. In this article, we’re taking a look at some of the toughest watches on the market. Whether it’s high levels of water pressure, shocks, or extreme temperatures, there are mechanical watches that you can rely on in extreme conditions.
Mechanical watches are actually rather delicate handcrafted items. Just consider all the tiny components that are precisely coordinated to work within minimal margins. During a factory visit many years ago, I saw a piece of paper in a workspace that read, “Here, 1/1000 mm isn’t a margin of error but a physical distance” in German. This demonstrates the incredible levels of precision that mechanical watchmakers must achieve. While watches are composed of many small parts, making them susceptible to damage, it doesn’t mean they can’t take a beating.
Raffi Boyadjian | It’s no surprise that Grand Seiko watches are so popular on our marketplace considering the amount of passion and attention to detail that goes into each one. Our top seller is the Grand Seiko SBGA211 Snowflake, followed by the SBGV245 and SBGK005 models. Generally speaking, our users seem to prefer timepieces with automatic movements. Since 2019, 62% of all Grand Seiko watches sold on Chrono24 have had automatic movements, while just 26% have had quartz calibers. Manual movements come in at third with a 12% share of sales.
Raffi Boyadjian | A large portion of Grand Seiko watches sold on Chrono24 come from the brand’s home country of Japan (35%), followed by the US at 31% and UK at 9%. The lucky buyers, on the other hand, are most frequently based in the US (39%), Germany (8%), and the UK (6%).
