Pre-Owned Picks Off We Go, Into The Wild Blue Yonder!

IWC is a brand that specializes in pilot's watches, probably more than any other brand. So, picking just one out of the lineup to feature can bring about a bit of decision paralysis, with no wrong answer. Ultimately, if you are going to pick one, go big, and if you are going to go big, go all the way – with 48mm of watch. The large size and dial configuration of the internal hour marker ring and outer minute track comes from the original IWC Beobachtungsuhren Type B, a 55mm Pilot watch from over eighty years ago. The case may be big, but the ceramic build keeps the weight down, and with seven days of power reserve, forgetting to wind it for a day or two is not a problem. The Top Gun logo on the back of the watch is a nice touch, but this timepiece is cool enough without it.

Bell & Ross is a relatively new kid on the block, having been founded in the 1990s, so there's no long history of a bygone era for their designs to be pulled from. Instead, the brand drew inspiration from the airplane itself, designing a watch that looks straight out of a cockpit instrument cluster. Big legible hands and markers, a very unobtrusive date window that can easily be missed at first glance, and a crown that is easily gripped are exactly what a pilot's watch needs to be – and exactly what Bell & Ross delivers. It's incredibly difficult to come up with a design language that's new, easily recognizable, and works, and it deserves high praise. Above all, in an industry like watchmaking that's been around for so long, it's especially impressive, since there are certain constraints, like fitting on a wrist. Few have achieved it like Bell & Ross has.

When it comes to pilot's watches, many brands share history in the military space, but no one has captured the civil aviation sector like Breitling. Boeing, Lockheed, and Douglas aircraft all had Breitling chronographs as part of the instrument cluster during the civil aviation boom that followed WWII. This familiarity between Breitling and the pilots led to a watch meant for the person flying the airplane, the Navitimer. With a slide rule bezel that allowed the pilot to calculate average speed, fuel consumption, rate of climb or descent, and distance traveled, the Navitimer became the true tool watch for the early days of civil aviation. To celebrate this heritage, Breitling introduced a capsule collection of Navitimers in 2019, where each watch boasted a matching color scheme to go with a commercial airline company, while creating some unique color schemes, like the black-and-red SwissAir edition we see here.

Famously, the GMT-Master was originally designed for commercial pilots who wanted to track the time zone they were flying from as well as the one they were flying to. As time marched on, so too did small changes to today's ceramic GMT-Master II, all of which can be read in detail in our Reference Points column. For my taste, this GMT-Master II is one of the best examples. It has a vintage case design, drilled lugs for easy strap changes, and a classic aluminum bezel. These vintage touches are balanced with modern Super-LumiNova that won't crack like older tritium and white gold markers. This special combination of old and new only lasted from 1997 to 2002: any earlier and you get tritium, any later and the lug holes are gone. The more popular dial combination might be blue and red, known as "the Pepsi," but as an Atlantan, I have to give my vote to this black-and-red Coke bezel.

This is one of the most overlooked modern watches from the underappreciated Breguet. The original Type XX from Breguet was made in the 1950s for pilots in the French military and was reintroduced to the general public in 1995. Since then, it's gone through a few evolutions, adding a little size and function to become the Type XXI, and ultimately the Type XXII we have here. This is not a regular part of the line but more of a "hey look at what we can do" type of watch. The bracelet, case, and bezel are straight from the Type XXI, but the red-accented markers and second hand let you know something else is happening here. A 10 Hz movement inside beats twice as fast as what is commonly called a "high beat" movement and is impressive to hear ticking away at 20 ticks every second. This is fast enough to have the chronograph second hand go around the dial twice a minute, while the long minute hand moves in half-minute increments. This is heritage and mechanical engineering at its best.

For any other watches that send you off on a flight of fancy, check out the Hodinkee Shop.