Reply With QuoteI can't answer your question, but on a recent TV program about the Red Arrows, pretty much all the pilots were wearing (prominently displayed) Breitling Emergencies.
what are the 2006/7 issued flight crew watches ?
Thanks
I can't answer your question, but on a recent TV program about the Red Arrows, pretty much all the pilots were wearing (prominently displayed) Breitling Emergencies.
Originally Posted by hogthrob
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Pulsar chrono for fast jet aircrew, rotary aircrew and navs.
The rest are issued with CWC G10s All new stuff coming through are W10 battery hatch type.
These are the current issue but any old stock still use up Seiko 2nd gen chronos , Pulsar G10s or CWC G10 2000 snap on back with no battery hatch.
Most dont use issue watches anyway and prefer to purchase their own. Must be nice to afford a Breitling!
Regards
Peter (Nimrod)
i can honestly say, i have never seen a RAF pilot wear an issued watch :shock:
but bearing in mind the average age of the pilot/nav in the mess we use is probably around the 20-25 mark im surprised they are not wearing Pokemon or Barney watches :lol:
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Oh, the irony! :D
There was one shot where there were about ten sat round a table, with five or six Breitlings clearly visible. It seems unlikely that such a high proportion would chose the same watch (even if it was issued). I wondered if the Red Arrows were sponsored by Breitling.
Interesting to hear that "NOS" Seikos are still being issued.
Probably. But besides that, if I was a pilot, I'd wear an Emergency.There was one shot where there were about ten sat round a table, with five or six Breitlings clearly visible. It seems unlikely that such a high proportion would chose the same watch (even if it was issued). I wondered if the Red Arrows were sponsored by Breitling.
Interesting to hear that "NOS" Seikos are still being issued.
john
"The whole purpose of mechanical watches is to be impertinent." ~ Lionel a Marca, CEO of Breguet
Which model of Pulsar chrono, asked a cheap git yesterday..?
Morning everyone
I was talking to Red 10 - that's the Red Arrows ground commentary man last year. He told me the Breitlings were provided by the manufacturers. Whether this was a one off or a continuing process he didn't say.
Eddie P
Pilots ar equiped with stat of art GPS trackers etc.... i NEVER ever believed the hype these Breitlings get. I dont think anyone has ever used one in anger and been rescued. (The Richard Branson one was a media set up)
You are probably right. The only case I can find is this one:
http://www.timezone.com/library/news/ne ... 4389687500
... and it came out of here:
http://watchismo.blogspot.com/2007/09/s ... y-not.html
It doesn't say much, does it?
john
"The whole purpose of mechanical watches is to be impertinent." ~ Lionel a Marca, CEO of Breguet
So they where pilots flying a multi million pound machine over Antartica without any form of MOD GPS locator etc !!!!!!
Breitling should make childrens story DVD's !!
For a GPS Locator to be of any use, the aircraft/helicopter etc so fitted would have to be intact and, ideally, on the surface. One presumes that, (without detailed information being available other than that an 'emergency' was used), either the craft was not intact (crashed?) or it was under water.
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
You don't need a Breitling to have a PLB or EPIRB. I can't find any mention of whether these things are RAF issue though.
Still on the subject of watches rather then trying to figure out how the Raf knows where its aircaft are I was talking to a VC10 nav who was wearing a 1st gen Seiko chrono.
He said he had it issued in mid 80s. Not beeing a watch nut like us he did not exactly look after it as well as we would. Watch still in great condition which says a lot for the quality of the 1st Seiko chronos.
Last one I seen was on a Canberra nav just beforehe retired last year when the aircraft was withdrawn from service. Sadly the watches have to be handed back!
Regards
Peter (Nimrod)
For a GPS Locator to be of any use, the aircraft/helicopter etc so fitted would have to be intact and, ideally, on the surface. One presumes that, (without detailed information being available other than that an 'emergency' was used), either the craft was not intact (crashed?) or it was under water.
well they would have a possible 3x locators .One of which is strapped to them
With regard to the sponsorship; as Government employees, the Red Arrows would not be allowed to be sponsored by anything. That doesn't stop Breitling making the watches available at discounted prices (forces discounts are quite the norm) and of course duty free, to service people.
Suunto, among many others, sponsor the Red Devils: http://www.reddevilsonline.com/sponsors.vc
Hi,
You are correct. I'm surprised they have been allowed to do this. They claim to be entirely self funded through sponsorship, which is a very strange state of affairs if you think about it.
Hi,
the watches are in fact supplied FOC to the pilots. It's not a traditional sponsorship deal as there are strict rules on what can be used by Breitling in the way of the red arrows 'brand'.
They were supplied with the aerospace for a long time. My favorite was the Colt Quartz that was sold at cost to the ground crew.
Cheers,
Mark
Good to see you here and welcome :)
Do you have any pics of the watches mentioned?
Best regards,
AP :)
HI
I don't think I have, I'll have to have a rumage through the old junk at my parents place.
I saw these things on a very regular basis, so I took them for granted
Mark
This is the first type of aerospace that was 'issued'
Nothing else special about them apart from the dial. I'm still looking for details of the Colt Quartz.
For French Air Force : G-Shock Frogman like the DW-9000
Dynamo
.
Would the Damasko DC56 be classified as 'issue'?
What about the DC57?
john
"The whole purpose of mechanical watches is to be impertinent." ~ Lionel a Marca, CEO of Breguet
News of the famed Damasko DC56 EADS certification is on the Damasko website (German version) as of today ... doesn't tell you much, though. :(
Cheers,
Martin ("Crusader")
We Aussies are a tad tighter than the UK MOD.
When I was RMO of the 5th Aviation Regiment in North Queensland from 2001-03 there were two watches isued to pilots of both Army Aviation and RAAF. Both were Citizen. One was the Navihawk and the other (more commonly) was the Wingman.
Some Australian Army gorund forces are issued standard G-Shocks, on what seems to me to be a quite random basis.
I don't what, if any, dive watches are issued in Australia.
Smashie, are you sure that was 'issued'- my impression and information was that they were not issued.
Perhaps to the Red arrows team as part of sponsoship/promootional agreement, as with some other display teams symobols, that breitling had on the dials of some models.
AP.
Breitling give watches to many of the aviation demonstration teams of the world's forces. I've posted here before (I think it was here) about running into a former Silver Sparrows pilot who'd been given a Breitling when he was on the team.
Similar things are done at military dive schools. I bought my first Aqualand off of one my instructors when I graduated: Citizen had come by and given away watches to the instructors. He already had one and so sold his 'freebie' on to this guppie.
That was what the relationship was, in my understanding, rather than them being 'issued' [by the military / government.].
AP :)
Are you sure it wasn't the "Silver Swallows" display team Colin? This is the name of the Irish Aer Corps display unit which used to display with four Fouga Magister aircraft for many years. After winning an aerobatics competition at Fairford the pilots were given Breitling Aerospaces with the team crest on the dial and I believe only about half a dozen of these were produced. Some of these pilots now work for the same company as myself and if I get a chance I will try to post a photo of one of their Aerospaces, they're one of the nicest that I've ever seen and obviously ultra-rare.
Michael.
Wow holy thread revival, or how you should check back every so often
when I said 'issued' what I meant was that there was no MOD connection, but every new Red Arrows member got one. You have to be careful using the term sponsorship or endorsement with the MOD, they tend to get a tad stroppy.
There are also a couple of stories that I WILL NOT post here about members of our armed forces and them trying to blag Breitling's.
Cheers,
Mark
That's interesting, thanks for posting that. I'm not surprised, though that's rather disappointing. However, what with the equipment shortages and the MoD budgetary situation, it seems a good idea that units can work something out, however, then making it 'official' without MoD sanction is not possible, so it's rather a catch 22 until the MoD are receptive to the idea-which would be rather good for all.
Best wishes,
AP :)
Czech pilots wears recently Askania Tempelhof TEM 645-1. They fly on JAS-39 Gripen.
Pretty soon tanks and armoured vehicles will have advertisements on their sides like taxis. I can just see some hard types riding around in a tank with "Virgin" painted on the side.
Best wishes,
Bob
It's all part of the big plan (pun intended) of the neoliberal economy ... why rely on government logistics when everybody is being sponsored? So in the future, if a tank doesn't make it back, it will most likely mean that the crew wasn't smart or persistent enough to acquire fuel sponsors, and they are being weeded out by the market.
It'll be the final victory of the market economy on the battlefield, that. :wink:
Cheers,
Martin ("Crusader")
It seems all rather good, however when matters become more comlicated, and resistant, as history shows, and the attributes of a watch and that of future foes demonstrates, matters will very likely breakdown.
It's useful publicity whilst the going is good, however militaries must be predicated on when matters are not so good. Indeed, that is their raison-d'etre.
Quite the utility of a watch of this kind, that may be perhaps why it's permitted or even encouraged-as it's not seen as intrinsically necessary, rather, another would do.
It seems that the small sums and benefits involved with a very good watch for these purposes is greater in 'utility' and oter important terms, and to balanced provisioning for the good of the servicemen and women as well as the military, as very expensive computer systems and communications systems which cost billions, upon billions to obtain and maintain.
That there is little linking up of these benefits and attributes demonstrates the failure and some would state hypocracy of the neolibral agenda or whatever they are called, who are the callers for such linking up, yet on record are the worst ever at provisioning or indeed providing for or of it.
Sadly, the bijoux or very rough are at both ends of the military watch spectrum more and more, and few of the positive tool watches. The same seems to be the way that Swatch seems to want to go, leaving the field wide open for miyota and seiko (who have a penchant for such monstosities as ecodrive and spring drive, imho-a real franken watch if there were any designed by one 'body')
AP
I happened upon this thread while searching an IWC St. Exupery. I dug out the drawer this old Navitimer which I wear little nowadays but it is a limited edition Red Arrows version, about 10 years old I think. Still a good timekeeper though.
I like :)
Nice watch. What's the engine?
AP )
I don't really know but probably a standard Valjoux I guess. It's been everywhere worldwide (well, at least five continents anyway) and has never missed a beat. I have a few Breitlings here as well as IWC's including the Sptifire chrono which I bought last October and currently wear. I just like the look of the Antoine St. Exupery which I why I posted elsewhere to find one. Lovely watch in my opinion.
Think they call it a Breitling 13, which is a modified ETA Val. 7750.
Nice watch :)
Good luck with finding the IWC St E..
It'll be interesting to see what it's like, and hopefully some pics ;)
Best wishes,
AP :)
Here's a photo I found on the net. Sorry about the inadvertant publicity!
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