aviation watch

I've got an eco-drive titanium Citizen "Skyhawk".

The reason I bought it wasn't for the E6B features, but the time zones and lack of need for replacing the battery.

I love the watch, but besides the time zones, it's impractical because it has no backlight.
 
Philip Persio navi-hawk. E6B is useless really, but it has a backlight and a zulu time window.
 
How heavy is that thing? I've got a titanium Fossil watch right now that I dig because it's so lightweight. It looks like it's about the same size, but I'm afraid it might be a lead weight on my wrist.
 
That's the ebay seller I got mine through. Took about 2 weeks to get it to me, but otherwise it is as advertised. New, in the box with registration and warranty info. It's all legit....

Interesting. I tried to convince the wife to get me a new watch (I'd be my second this year), but she isn't biting. :(

Maybe next year after taxs come in. Watches are a bad habit of mine, have about 7 sitting around.
 
I have the best watch on the block for a pilot. I swear by it and have been looking for something like this for ages. Not going to break the wallet either!

It's a Casio, has a light that works very well, it is an atomic watch that updates several times a day, has the stopwatch, alarms, countdown and all that stuff that every watch has but what makes it so great is that you can easily display two times at once without hitting any buttons. I usually keep mine on local time and zulu time which works great.

I hate shopping at walmart, and this is about the only thing I have bought there in the last few years but for $29 it was well worth it. Here is the link http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4840142

Don't think it is cheaply made either... It is mostly metal, if anything were to ever break it would be the band, but if you ask them, they will give you a box that you can put it in and send it back to Casio and they will replace the band for free as many times as it breaks.
 
No offense, I'm sure the watch is great, but I'll still stay the hell away from Wal-Mart until they change some crucial things about their business and how they treat their employees.

Nevertheless, for that same $29 bucks, you could get a much better looking watch (see ebay link).
 
Citizen Navi-Hawk. I have had the battery driven version for several years now. Works Great. One of the best gifts my wife has given...

http://laudicks.com/cat002.asp?ItemNo=JR3080-51L&OrderNum=0&Mode=Special&SS=

JR3080-51L_small.jpg
 
Nevertheless, for that same $29 bucks, you could get a much better looking watch (see ebay link).

It may be better looking, but it won't be "better" unless you drop a few hundred bucks for one of those 2 pound bricks to strap on your arm.

Besides, I think it looks just fine and I am very proud of my $29 watch even though I am ashamed that I bought it from walmart. :)
 
That's the ebay seller I got mine through. Took about 2 weeks to get it to me, but otherwise it is as advertised. New, in the box with registration and warranty info. It's all legit....

Okay, it took me a few minutes of research to find out what was going on, but these aren't even refurbs of Citizen watches. I went to the Citizen website and they stated they offered a 5-year warranty, while this auction states a 1-year warranty. I'm not sure how they are allowed to even put Citizen in the auction, I guess they are just saying "Citizen movement". Using Google I found some people saying that it really is like a $30 watch (imagine that). Being that, I would assume the same $30 would buy you a nicer watch at Wal-Mart or Target.

I just wanted to put that out there about the ebay auctions because I think some people are buying under the impression they are getting something for nothing. :)
 
Okay, it took me a few minutes of research to find out what was going on, but these aren't even refurbs of Citizen watches. I went to the Citizen website and they stated they offered a 5-year warranty, while this auction states a 1-year warranty. I'm not sure how they are allowed to even put Citizen in the auction, I guess they are just saying "Citizen movement". Using Google I found some people saying that it really is like a $30 watch (imagine that). Being that, I would assume the same $30 would buy you a nicer watch at Wal-Mart or Target.

I just wanted to put that out there about the ebay auctions because I think some people are buying under the impression they are getting something for nothing. :)
That's what I was about to say, these are "Citizen Movement," which means jack! And of course, as people say; "you get what you pay for." Many things on E-bay are a gamble and many of these watches are made of cheap material that makes it highly doubtful that you just saved $200 by buying this via ebay. Also the quality is debatable depending on who is talking. For instance, someone used to watches from the 99 Cent store may think it is great quality and from Rolex, while those used to Breitling may think it's from the 99-cent store. Now, you could get the watch and love it, or you could hate it. To each his own.
 
From the military perspective....

The watch we are issued in undergraduate pilot training is that Casio G Shock. It works well, and can be knocked around the cockpit without worrying about damaging it. Unfortunately, the plastic wrist strap is pretty flimsy and after a couple years it broke off.

I replaced it with an Omega Speedmaster X-33. This is a big-buck watch, designed in cooperation with NASA and some fast-jet fighter guys a decade ago. It's titanium and stainless, with a bunch of features that make it very cockpit-friendly. After about 1500 hours use in the cockpit, I say that it's a winner. It's durable, easy to read in flight under many different lighting conditions, and has features that I actually use (Mission Timer, UTC) and not ones I don't (like an E6B). The downside to the X-33 is that its expensive and pretty bulky.

I recently purchased a Breitling B1, but haven't yet had a chance to give it significant use flying in order to review it properly. It looks cool, though.
 
Do you know what the uber-geeky but most practical pilot watch is? A digital calculator watch.
 
I skipped the Citizen Navihawk in favor of the Navitach. As others point out the E6B on the Navihawk is useless while the dive timer on the Navitach is quite funtional. I have the digital set to UTC and local time on the standard face. I hardly use any of the other funtions but sometimes use the alarm when on travel.

Back when I was doing the Infantry Officer thing, I loved the Casio dive watches since they were cheap to the point of being disposable, rugged and accurate. The bigger the watch the better was the fashion. Seiko dive watches were also very cool, if you wanted to spend 5 times the price of a Casio on a watch.
 
I've got an eco-drive titanium Citizen "Skyhawk".

The reason I bought it wasn't for the E6B features, but the time zones and lack of need for replacing the battery.

I love the watch, but besides the time zones, it's impractical because it has no backlight.

I've got the same one, and I love it. It's hella lightweight since it's titanium, and the time zones are DAMN convenient (esp since I DH back and forth across the Eastern/Central time zone WAY too much). The annoying thing is, like Doug said, no backlight on the watch.

I DID use the E6-B TWICE last week. We were trying to figure out how long it would take us to get to an alternate airport (wx went south in DTW after we took off, so one wasn't filed), and it was actually faster on the whix wheel than using the FMS. :)
 
I racked my brain deciding on a nice watch to go flying with. After realizing that I really didn't need a flight computer, my options opened up and became much more aesthetically pleasing. I knew I wanted titanium, chronograph, quality brand, easy to read. So I chose the Seiko Titanium. It pretty much rocks.
B000J5FR8G.01-A35F2YAKCF027D._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V38941565_.jpg
 
I've got the same one, and I love it. It's hella lightweight since it's titanium, and the time zones are DAMN convenient (esp since I DH back and forth across the Eastern/Central time zone WAY too much). The annoying thing is, like Doug said, no backlight on the watch.

I DID use the E6-B TWICE last week. We were trying to figure out how long it would take us to get to an alternate airport (wx went south in DTW after we took off, so one wasn't filed), and it was actually faster on the whix wheel than using the FMS. :)

Me three on the titanium skyhawk. I doubt I could remember how to use an e6b, but if I did there's no way I could get the little wheel unstuck quicker than I could plug stuff into the FMS...
 
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