Laco Pilot 42 Type A Automatic - Ref: 861692 "Bremen"

Originally termed 'Beobachtungsuhr' or 'B-Uhr' for short, these type of watches were specially crafted for the German Luftwaffe pilots by A. Lange & Söhne, IWC, Wempe and the Pforzheim brands Laco and Stowa. The primary concern for these types of watches was the ease of readability even when the pilots were up in the air. For this very reason, a black dial with white luminous hands and numbers and a specially marked 12 o'clock denoted by a triangle with two small circles on the sides. Thus the Flieger, also commonly know as the Pilot or Aviator watch was born.

Laco Pilot 42 Type A Automatic - Ref: 861692 "Bremen"

Packaging: This watch come with a smart black leather zipper pouch which is pretty tough from the inside to protect it from any external damage. This leather case itself comes inside a nice cardboard box. Both the leather pouch and the cardboard box have 'Laco/1925' written on them on the bottom right corner, which in my mind looks pretty elegant.



The watch comes along with an additional black leather strap and a small manual which tells you how to set the time for all the different kinds of movements used by Laco.


First Impression: This watch is quite stunning in its own simple way. Definitely something that catches your attention. The leather strap with the rivets goes really well with the dial and enhances the overall look of the watch.



Case: 42mm wide and 12mm in height, stainless steel with a beautiful matte finish to it. It has "FL23883" engraved on the left and some more stuff on the back. The quality seems really good and has a nice feel to it. This one comes with a domed and anti-reflective sapphire crystal. and waterproof up to 5 ATM, which is good enough for your daily wear. Just like the original, this one comes with an 'onion crown' which looks great on a Flieger.



Movement: The Bremen runs on the ever dependable Swiss automatic ETA 2824-2. It has 25 jewels, does 28800 bph and has no date complication.

Dial: This model has the Type A dial, which excludes the inner circle as compared to the Type B dial. I prefer this one as its got a nice clean look to it. The hour marking have Arabic numbers and the traditional triangle for the 12.
The hands hands are nice and wide for easy readability, which was a very important factor while constructing these kinds of watches back when they were first produced. The hands also have a beautiful blue outline which gives the watch a very classy look. Both the hands and the hour markings have Superluminova C3 on them which is pretty bright once charged.



Strap: The watch comes with a nice thick brown calf leather strap with a couple of rivets on either side of the case, which look great, just like the original Laco Pilot. As mentioned above, this watch comes with an additional black leather strap, which I think is pretty sweet. The buckle had Laco engraved on it.


Overall Impression: This watch had been on my wish list for quite a while now and I can truly say that it doesn't disappoint at all. It really a stunning timepiece with very nice build quality. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, although the case is 42mm, it has the presence and the look of a 44-45mm case, but somehow doesn't appear over sized. It looks just right!
There are lots of companies that produce Fliegers, but not all of them are a part of its history. I think Laco has done a wonderful job recreating this stunning and classic timepiece, with great build quality and at an affordable price.

Surprise delivery

Some of you might be aware that a while back, CF and I had taken an online course in watch repair. Unfortunately, we soon ran out of watches to practice on (or destroy?). To add to it, work at our workplace also increased, and the course came to an abrupt stop. We'd always discuss about resuming it, but never got the time or inclination to do it.
A few days ago, I got a surprise delivery from a WIS friend from Delhi. It was a box containing six 'guinea pig' watches for me and CF to practice on. Along with it was a letter which encouraged us to "experiment on" the watches and basically do whatever we felt like with them, and if we wanted more, there were many more from where they came from!
If there was anything that could motivate us into completing the course, it was this!
Here are the six 'guinea pigs':


I have to confess though. While, I'm pumped about being able to work on the watches, I really can't bring myself to fiddle around with the Enicar.


The watch is screaming for a restoration and I hope my watch guy can do a good job with it.

A special shout out to Sumer, who took time out to collect the watches and ship them out to us. Both CF and I truly appreciate it! :)

HQ Rolex wallpaper

Was playing around with the camera and took this shot. Thought I'll share it here. I think it makes a nice wallpaper. Notice anything unusual ? ;)

Click on the pic for the full resolution (1600x900)

Incoming 1 - Laco Flieger 42 Typ A Automatik

So this the first of the two watches that I spoke about in my last post. I should be ecstatic, but things didn't go exactly as I had planned. The customs department really put me in a foul mood in the morning. FedEx sent me an invoice for the total duties and taxes I was required to pay. Its honestly quite a pretty penny and over that, I was required to pay octroi. All in all, its about half of what I paid for the watch. To make it worse, the customs totally disregarded the price of the watch mentioned in the invoice (and honestly that what I paid for it). They instead thought they knew more about watches than the company itself and valued the watch at 75% more than the original price!! So not only was I pissed that I am having to pay more as customs duty, I am more appalled at how they chose their own price for it.
However, I really wanted this watch for a long time and the original price + shipping (without the discount I was offered) is quite close to what I eventually paid for it, so i thought I'll take it anyway. Moreover this was supposed to be an early birthday for myself and I couldn't see it go away.

Having cleared that of my mind, I preset to you this truly gorgeous timepiece with a history dating back to WW II - the Laco Flieger 42 Type A Automatik - "Bremen"

Specs: ETA 2824-2, Stainless steel case with "FL23883" engraving Ø: 42 mm, height 12 mm, domed and anti-reflective Sapphire crystal, solid case back with engraving, 5 ATM

I'll let the pics do the talking as I will be doing a review on it soon enough. One thing I have to say, although it has a 42mm diameter, it appears larger than that. Its good for people who want to go for the 45mm, but are in two minds if it will look too big on the wrist. This one looks just right! :)
Apologies for the quality of the pics, I had o rush home and take some quick shots during my lunch break. Some of the pics have been shot on my camera phone. As always, click on the pic to enlarge it.








I forgot to take the blue plastic off the rivets, so took another wrist shot -

An attempt to capture the lume on my camera phone -

That feeling is back!!

Its been almost two years since my last purchase (Rolex Sub) and this dry spell was really depressing for me. Finally I have not one, but two watches incoming as I type, all thanks to my (and Bio's) birthday thats around the corner :)

Will be taking lots of pics and perhaps a review too. So excited!!

Spotted in the wild - Rolex

Well, not really :P , but was on the way to work when Bio noticed the guy in front of us on the bike had a jacket on with 'Rolex' written on it. Thought it'll be fun to share it here :)

Omega serial number and year list

I had been looking for this for sometime now. I was curious to know which year my Seamaster was assembled in (2006). I had e-mailed Omega a couple of years back but they replied saying that they couldn't provide info on it for "security reasons". Click on the link below to access the page: