Posts Tagged ‘Military’
Italian Air Force Leonidas CP-2 Flyback
Recent re-editions of the Breguet’s XX, Breitling AVI, Heuer/Sinn’s 3H Bundeswehr, and Zenith’s A. Cairelli have brought increased attention to vintage Air Force chronographs. But there’s one that often goes forgotten, simply because the manufacture no longer exists to capitalize on that reissue dough. Leonidas merged with Heuer in 1962. Before that union, they made…
Read MoreCivilian Zenith A. Cairelli CP-2
The Zenith A. Cairelli AMI CP-2 represents a high-water mark of effortless Italian style, full stop. And that’s saying a lot: Turin gave us the Type 33 Stradale, Piedmont gave us Nutella (okay, maybe Nutella isn’t stylish but I love it), Florence gave us the Vespa, and Zenith gave Italy’s Air Force, and the world,…
Read MoreBundeswehr-Issued IWC Porsche Design Ocean 2000
When I say integrated sports watch, you almost certainly imagine a RO, Nautilus, or Overseas. You almost certainly do not imagine a Laureato, Octo Finissimo (despite it holding all the records today), or this: an imaginative 1980s diver with a full integrated titanium bracelet issued to Bundeswehr combat dive units known as Kampfschwimmers. This is…
Read MoreKAF-Issued 73663 Heuer Autavia
When you think military-issued pieces, you probably think Milsub for the Royal Navy, MN Tudors, Type XX chronographs, or the Dirty Dozen. You likely do not imagine Heuers for the Kenyan Air Force. And yet, they exist. Functionally-funky vintage cool does not come much stronger than the KAF-issued 73663. The Autavia was, as I’m sure…
Read More‘Dirty Dozen’ British Army Issued Grana WWW
The Dirty Dozen is the title of 1967 film, which I have never seen, in which 12 fictional soldiers had some misadventures in WW2. But I have seen all the watches 12 watches lovingly nicknamed after this movie, the watches which actually served in WW2. This dozen are a group of field watches built by…
Read More3646 Panerai ‘Kampfschwimmer’ Type D
1943 Panerai have very little relation to the Richemont powerhouse of today. Modern Panerai gets a hard time from many enthusiasts, this can happen when you are less-than-truthful as to where your movements are born. A fraction of that criticism is deserved, while the larger whole is likely not. There are many attractive and technically…
Read More2-Liner ‘Commando Hubert’ Prototype Tudor Pelagos FXD
This is, without question, one of the rarest and most shrouded Tudors produced of recent years. And yet, it has received so little attention, partly because it looks so damn similar to its four line regular production counterpart and partly because so little is known. In 2021, Tudor announced a renewed partnership with the Marine…
Read MoreVixa Type XX Flyback
The French might eat the heads off prawns, smoke in your sitting room, and surrender to finger guns, but, damn, do they ever know how to produce a gorgeous chronograph. In the post-WWII lull, the French military (most notably the Aéronavale) created a criteria for a modern flyback chronograph and sent it off to various…
Read MoreRAF IWC Mark XI 6B/346
Casual, utilitarian, and subtle, IWC’s Mark XI set the template for much of the manufacture’s current design language. IWC proved their metal with the Type X, made for Armed Forces in the Second World War. This led the RAF to place an order for an updated aviator’s equivalent in 1948, and the IWC Mark XI…
Read MoreBlancpain Air Command Flyback
Common lore of the mythical Blancpain Air Command goes something like this: after Blancpain’s success with the US Navy Fifty Fathoms through Allen Tornek, the manufacture made just a few (estimates range from 8-12) flyback chronograph prototypes in the hopes of attracting Air Force contracts. Nothing really came of that effort aside from a just…
Read More