Best Pilot Watch for $100

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

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
:

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...


Wow, you can't add or subtract a nmber greater than the finges on one hand.
Typical right winger.



Bertie

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

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.

Okay, I'm like, two weeks late reading this thread but I'll put my two
cents in anyway. Maybe I should log in here more often.

I have a Timex Adventure Tech watch; all digital, $100US SRP.
Altimeter, two time zones, barometer (for what it's worth),
chronometer, timer, and alarm. I got it on sale two years ago on
Amazon for $60US. Checked today and Amazon is currently selling'em for
86 bucks.

I originally bought it for backcountry skiing and hiking and it works
very well, but it also is, IMHO, a good watch for flying. More
intuitive than many digital watches as far as accessing the various
functions.

Evil downside: the battery died right after I got the watch from
Amazon, but I replaced the battery and it's been working flawlessly
for almost two years now. Not so evil upside: the wrist band is hugely
adjustable and I can wear it on the outside of my fleece jacket while
skiing, but thanks to the way it adjusts it works well on my bare
naked wrist too. I'm strictly a VFR pilot and don't really use all the
functions of the watch but I believe you IFR guys might find it handy
too.

An aside: when I was a navigator flying in a gunship (AC119K) in 1972
I picked up an Omega Flightmaster watch in downtown Udorn (IIRC) for
something like $45US. Great watch, still have it. Has a second hand
that can be set (Zulu for me then) and very easy to hack to WWV, or
whatever. Later when I was a navigator in KC135's I found it perfect
for celestial navigation. Of course, that doesn't really apply to the
real world today, does it?

I still have the Flightmaster and it still works, but man, it's a
boatload on your wrist. Weighs a ton, and I now officially consider it
to be a Fashion Accessory. But, it does the trick when I want to
impress my girlfriend (also my wife; we've been married for 35 years)

Again, just my two centavos.

--Walt Weaver
Bozeman, Montana

On Nov 14, 9:51 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!

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"