Last Fall’s news of former military fighter pilots training Chinese pilots just got a refresh with a new Canadian probe into ex-RCAF pilots training students in China.
2020, The Watch Year in Review: 7 High-Flying Pilots’ Watches Written by
December 28, 2020
It goes without saying: 2020 was far from an ideal year for most of us. Looking back, however, it was also a year that brought many noteworthy watch launches despite the huge obstacles posed by the pandemic and its effects on the world economy. As we look ahead hopefully to 2021, it’s time for our annual look back at some of those timepieces, in various popular categories. Today, we showcase 2020’s most intriguing aviator-style watches.
Bell & Ross completed its Flight Instrument family based on the designs of cockpit instruments with the
Top wrist candy
published : 11 Dec 2020 at 04:00
In 1986 the year Top Gun was in cinemas Jim DiMatteo joined the US Navy.
The graduate from the University of California Berkeley later became a real life pilot at the Navy Fighter Weapons School, whose TOPGUN programme trains naval aviators to become better pilots and, above all, outstanding instructors.
As an IWC Schaffhausen Friend of the Brand, the now-retired US Navy captain shares his experience as an ace aviator on the occasion of the launch of the Pilot s Watch Chronograph Top Gun Edition SFTI .
The new model is inspired by the Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor watch, created in 2018 in collaboration with instructors based at the Naval Air Station Leemore in California.
Share
How the watch business is doing in these times depends on where you’re looking, with sales in some countries virtually on hold as others cautiously recover, and one in particular speeds ahead.
The watch industry is no stranger to threats to its very existence; there have been three in the past 50 years. The first came with the “quartz crisis” of the 1970s, when the introduction of cheaper – and more accurate – battery-powered watches decimated the traditional industry thanks to sales suddenly falling 15 per cent; and the second was the financial crisis of 2009 that left sales down 22 per cent.
Stop, slow down or go: Rolex Oyster Perpetual watches in red, yellow and green represent the three-speed world of the watch industry amid the pandemic reset.