ICON
OMEGA SPEEDMASTER PILOT
£8900 /go.stuff.tv/Pilot
Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking…
You couldn’t pilot a paper aeroplane, never mind a real one, but don’t let your lack of air miles put you off coveting the latest Speedmaster. It’s very hard not to be tempted by the 40.85mm stainless steel case and aluminium bezel (complete with trademark ‘dot over 90’ mark) of the Pilot, which shares styling DNA with the original 1957 Speedmaster – a favourite among airmen from the US Air Force, who liked its robustness and reliability, and valued how easy it was to read even when things started to get a little hairy at 40,000ft.
Like when there’s a crying baby on board?
Yeah, bawling infants can be a real distraction when you’re trying not to get shot down over enemy territory. But what makes the Pilot special is its cockpit-inspired face, with twin subdials – a 60min/12hr recorder that mimics a ‘burn rate’ indicator, and a seconds display styled like a target sight – at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock respectively. It also has bold Super-LumiNova hands and markers that glow green in the dark, so you’ll still be able to read it when the real captain dims the cabin lights for take-off and landing.
What do you mean, ‘real captain’?
Look, it’s blindingly obvious that the most complex machinery you’re allowed to be in charge of is a self-service checkout, but the co-axial Master Chronometer Calibre 9900 movement inside this watch can cope with much more. It’s METAS-certified, which means it doesn’t get affected by magnetic fields and won’t lose time over, er, time. And the water-resistance of 100m might not be necessary when you’re a mile high (unless things go drastically wrong), but it’s always comforting for deskbound dreamers – even if the closest they get to flying a plane is donning a bomber jacket to play
Microsoft Flight Simulator.
IT SHARES STYLING DNA WITH THE ORIGINAL 1957 SPEEDMASTER, A FAVOURITE AMONG THE US AIR FORCE