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The Watches

Zenith Launches Boutique-Only Pilot Models

Zenith unveils boutique editions of its existing Pilot Automatic and Pilot Big Date Flyback watches, both of which feature the brilliant blue dials we’ve seen on previous Zenith boutique-only launches.

The new Zenith Pilot Automatic, Boutique Edition

These latest models give a new look to two of Zenith’s top 2023 debuts. Each highlights the watchmaker’s signature sky blue hue as rendered on textured, grooved dials meant to recall the corrugated metal sheets of vintage aircraft. Both watches also sport the word Pilot on the dial, which Zenith notes is an especially significant detail. That’s because only Zenith holds the rights to mark its dials with the term.

Zenith makes one of the two new watches, the Pilot Automatic Boutique Edition, with a 40mm stainless steel case that features a distinctive flat-top round bezel, which complements the watch’s satin-brushed, rounded case. 

Above the date window you’ll see a luminescent hour marker in the form of a flat white line. This detail is meant to recall the artificial horizon instrument in plane’s cockpit.

The new 42.5mm Zenith Pilot Big Date Flyback, Boutique Edition.

As the second of the new boutique-only watches, the new 42.5mm Pilot Big Date Flyback Boutique Edition offers a monotone sky-blue big date wheels to match the dial. More complicated with its flyback function, the watch’s namesake display that, combined with its large crown, was originally made for pilots who wore thick sheepskin gloves.

The flyback function allows the chronograph to be reset to zero and restarted by a single push of a button, simplifying the pilot’s operations and offering the possibility to record consecutive times without having to stop and restart.

From the back of the Pilot Big Date Flyback the wearer can eye an El Primero 3652 chronograph caliber with its “artificial horizon” rotor visible. (See below for all technical specifications). 

Zenith fits the watch on a blue rubber strap and also provides a brown  calfskin strap. All the straps come with an integrated quick-release mechanism for easy swapping without tools.

Prices: $7,500 (Pilot Automatic) and $11,500 (Pilot Big Date Flyback), both available in Zenith physical and online boutiques. 

 

Specifications:

Zenith Pilot Automatic, Boutique Edition 

(Reference: 03.4000.3620/51.I003)

Key points: El Primero 3-hands watch. High-frequency movement (5Hz). Full interchangeable strap system. Boutiques Edition.

Movement: El Primero 3620 SC, automatic

Frequency: 36,000 VpH (5 Hz)

Power reserve: Approx. 60 hours

Functions: Hours and minutes in the centre. Central seconds hand. Date indication at 6 o’clock.

Finishes: Special “Pilot artificial horizon” black oscillating weight

Material: Stainless steel

Water resistance: 10 ATM

Case: 40mm

Dial: Blue with horizontal grooves

Hour markers: Applied Arabic numerals in SuperLuminova SLN C1

Hands: Blue & white with SLN C1

Bracelet & Buckle: Comes with 2 straps: Blue “Cordura” effect rubber and a brown calfskin leather with folding clasp.

 

Zenith Pilot Big Date Flyback, Boutique Edition

(Reference: 03.4000.3652/51.I003)

Key points: Automatic El Primero column-wheel chronograph with flyback function. Patented Big Date at 6 o’clock. Instantaneous Big Date jump in 0.007 sec (0.02 for discs jump & stabilization). Full Interchangeable strap system. Boutiques Edition.

Movement: El Primero 3652, automatic

Frequency: 36,000 VpH (5 Hz)

Power reserve: approx. 60 hours

Functions: Hours and minutes in the centre. Small seconds at 9 o’clock. Instantaneous Big Date at 6 o’clock. Flyback Chronograph. 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock.

Finishes: Special “Pilot artificial horizon” black oscillating weight

Material: Stainless steel 

Water resistance: 10 ATM

Case: 42.5mm

Dial: Blue with horizontal grooves

Hour markers: Applied arabic numerals in SuperLuminova SLN C1

Hands: Blue & white with SLN C1

Bracelet & Buckle: Comes with 2 straps: Blue “Cordura” effect rubber and a brown calfskin leather with folding clasp.

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The Watches

Breitling Launches Limited Edition Navitimer 

Breitling introduces the Navitimer B01 Chronograph 46 U.S. Limited Edition, a small series production version of its classic Navitimer aviation watch.

The new Breitling Navitimer B01 Chronograph 46 U.S. Limited Edition.

The watch melds the classic Navitimer details, including a circular slide rule, baton indexes, three chronograph counters and notched bezel, with a modern slim case profile and a Breitling Manufacture Caliber 01, a COSC-certified chronometer movement. The movement provides an extra-long seventy hours of power reserve.

The watch combines a sharp-looking dark slate dial with black sub-dials and red accents, all within a 46mm stainless steel case and rose gold bezel.

Collectors will recall that Willy Breitling developed the “navigation timer”—or Navitimer—in 1952 as a wrist-worn chronograph with a circular slide rule that would allow pilots to perform all necessary flight calculations.

In 1954 the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association named the watch as its official timepiece, which is why the association’s winged logo was emblazoned at 12 o’clock. This model features that logo back at the same position. 

Breitling will produce the new watch in the limited quantity of 300 pieces specially for the United States market.

Price: $11,900.

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Featured Events

Zenith to Exhibit Historic Pilot Watches in NYC

Zenith will exhibit a selection of its vintage pilots watches at the Watches of Switzerland Hudson Yards location in New York from August 8 until September 10. The exhibit is meant to celebrate the watchmaker’s new Pilot collections, which debuted earlier this year during the Watches and Wonders watch fair in Geneva.

A Zenith military pilot watch circa 1928-1930.

 

At the Watches of Switzerland Hudson Yards store visitors will find six Zenith Pilot heritage pieces alongside Zenith’s new Pilot collection, which includes stainless steel and ceramic three-hand automatics and flyback chronographs.

A Zenith Chronographe Cairelli Type CP2 from the 1960s.

Zenith will display an impressive selection of historic aviation watches, including the Dashboard Altimeter (1910s), Pilot Wristwatch (1928-1930s), Chronograph Tipo CP2 (1968-72), El Primero Pilot-Diver (1972), El Primero Rainbow Fly-Back (1997), and El Primero Pilot Big Date Special (2010).

An altimeter from 1910.

Collectors are likely aware that Zenith registered the trademark “Pilote” in 1888, followed by the English “Pilot” in 1904, which allowed the brand to exclusively use the word on its dials.

A new Zenith Pilot Chronograph in steel.

Zenith watches were worn by Louis Blériot, who made history by accomplishing the first flight across the English Channel in 1909.

The 1997 El Primero Rainbow Flyback.
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The Watches

Junghans Updates Meister Pilot Collection

Junghans updates its aviation watch collection with two contemporary variations of the Meister Pilot Chronoscope plus the Meister Pilot Automatic Navy Blue, a new three-hand-with-date model.

The new Junghans Meister Pilot Chronoscope Desert.

The two new Chronoscope models watches retain the existing Meister Pilot case size (43.3mm) and bicompax chronograph design (small second at 3 o’clock, 30-minute counter at 9 o’clock) but sport a slightly larger Arabic numeral set, a vintage Junghans logo and a cleaner dial that dispenses with the inner five-minutes track found on the current Meister Pilot models.

The new Junghans Meister Pilot Chronoscope Navy Blue.

Junghans also retains one of the characteristic steel case features of Meister Pilot collection: the twelve concave case recesses that are meant to allow for more precise bezel adjustments.

Caseback view of the Meister Pilot Chronoscope Navy Blue.

One of the two new watches,  the Meister Pilot Chronoscope Navy Blue , pays homage to the famed North American Curtiss P-40 while the other, the Meister Pilot Chronoscope Desert, offers a sand-colored dial and a brown-black DLC-coated steel case.

Junghans is offering the Meister Pilot Chronoscope Navy Blue as a limited edition of 300 watches, each boasting a black DLC-coated steel case.

The new Junghans Meister Pilot Automatic Navy Blue.

No-Chrono

The new Meister Pilot Automatic Navy Blue offers the same pilot style but without the chronograph and with a date. 

Junghans has added a date disc made to resemble a cockpit display, complete with red accents and a contrasting small seconds hand. Instead of a the chronograph caliber found in the Chronoscopes, the Meister Pilot Automatic Navy Blue is powered by the ETA-based Caliber J880.1.6.

Junghans has a long history making aviation timers, starting in the 1930s when the German-based company supplied onboard clocks for numerous aircraft. In the 1950s, Junghans was awarded a contract for the newly established German Air force and subsequently developed the J88 intermediate-wheel chronograph.

Prices: 1,995 euros (Meister Pilot Automatic) and 2,590 euros (both new Meister Pilot Chronoscope models). 

 

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The Watches

Reservoir Launches ‘Black Sparrow’ Pilot Tribute

Reservoir pays tribute to Eugene Bullard, an African-American pilot who fought for France during World War I, with the new Reservoir Black Sparrow, the latest model in the French watchmaker’s retrograde minute, jump hour collection.

The new Reservoir Black Sparrow, here in a black PVD case.

The U.S.-born Bullard carried out around twenty aerial combat missions during WW1 and was described as a “true French hero” by Général de Gaulle, earning the nickname “The Black Sparrow of Death”.

Eugene Jacques Bullard, the first African American combat pilot, who fought for France in WWI.

Reservoir designed the Black Sparrow’s dials to recall the colors and styles of WWI cockpits, which collectors may also recognize from early 20th century pilot watches.

 

All maintain the Reservoir jump hour dial layout, which indicates minutes via a large hand sweeping 240-degrees across the dial and jumping back to restart each hour. Hours are shown digitally in the aperture at the 6 o’clock position.

The launch encompasses a new 42mm steel or black PVD case and black or sand-colored dials with Art Nouveau-inspired luminescent numerals. Reservoir mounts these on a black or brown Barenia leather strap.

All the debuts picture a propeller and wings laser-printed onto the watch’s clear sapphire caseback.  Reservoir explains that the propeller and wings is a popular military insignia used to identify various aviation-related military units especially the French Aeronautique Militaire.

Through that back you’ll see the Reservoir Caliber RSV-240, the watchmaker’s latest update of its signature jump-hour movement.

Introduced last year, the caliber is made in association with the Swiss engine manufacture TELOS. The automatic caliber makes use of a La Joux-Perret LJP-G100 base with a proprietary 113-piece module. With the new Caliber RSV-240, power reserve jumps to an impressive fifty-six hours

Price: $3,800.

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