Reply With QuoteVery nice review. I've been mulling over getting an Airman for some time. I'm interested in one of the reissues of the purist version Your review has given me more reasons to find one.
I don’t review watches on here but I want to make an exception for this because I think it, and the folk behind it, deserve it.
So, what is it? It’s a Glycine Airman Lume Dial GMT, Ref. GL006. Full lume auto, 42mm in PVD on a NATO. Cost under €700 new from Glycine. Inside is a Glycine GL293 movement which is essentially an ETA2893-2/SW330, operating at 28,800 bph (4 Hertz) with hacking and hand winding capabilities. It has 25/26 jewels with a power reserve of 38 hours.
Plenty of people here know far more about both Glycine’s genuine aviation heritage, and the brand’s decline, than I do so I won’t bang on about that, suffice to say it’s a name with deep and resonant connections to flying. Question that’s interesting I think is has that decline stopped. The new(ish) ownership concerned some. Should it?
The watch arrived (sort of - I had to go and get it from the parcel depot in the pre Christmas chaos) in December. The packaging is superb - not like Schofield is superb, rare wood boxes and so on, but in terms of everything you want being there, everything being beautifully on brand and two great welcome notes. For the price point (of which more later) they’ve definitely gone further than they needed to, which will chip away at margin. That’s a theme that will emerge more.
The watch “feels” very good. That slightly hard to pin down overall feeling a watch gives you - solidity, wearability, functions of the crown and bezel etc. All very good. Bezel is a friction type, but locked with the lower crown at “5”, or in the case of this triple time zone watch “8”. All feels slightly above the price point.
Time keeping thus far has been exactly as you’d expect. I’ve worn it in rotation so I suspect it would be fractionally better if worn solidly for a month or so when it didn’t keep running down in the box.
The NATO is great. Good quality, reinforced holes, nice buckle. Only grumble is it’s not long enough to feed back through the keepers, one of my bugbears, and I’ll be putting it on one of GGB’s efforts shortly (lugs are 22mm).
Lume is not as arc-light-like as their images - suspect that’s been under a UV torch for an hour first! But it’s plenty strong enough to pick the thing up from the bedside table at night and tell the time without my reading glasses on. A sort of solid yellow glow, rather than the searing green they photograph.
It’s hyper legible in daylight too, which is a factor for those of us who need reading glasses.
Other rather lovely thing is the slight hell from DPD in delivery caused me to email Glycine and I got a reply from Guus, who runs the thing. He was lovely, and very open and honest, also very clearly proud of what they’re trying to do to reinvigorate the brand.
So in summary I’m very pleased. It is certainly great value for the price point - although here’s a thing; the price is wholly dependent on where you buy it. In the Glycine Store Europe this is like €1,800. In their “other” outlet it’s €700. At this latter it seems excellent value to me. I wear it more than I thought I would and the particular version I’ve chosen is quite striking so generates lots of fun conversations with people.
That’s it. Just wanted to take the time to pop this down on “paper”.
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Last edited by FrontierGibberish; 13th January 2023 at 13:24.
Very nice review. I've been mulling over getting an Airman for some time. I'm interested in one of the reissues of the purist version Your review has given me more reasons to find one.
that’s for taking the time to review.
I have never tried a modern Glycine but do own an original 50s airman. The brand offers a real history of innovation and make distinctive watches (The Airman) unlike anything else on the market.
I don’t think you’d be disappointed. Bought sensibly I’d say very good value for money and assuming the attention to detail in mine flows across the range then a huge variety to choose from too.Originally Posted by gerrudd
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I’ve just received a similar Airman from k9david of this parish, and very nice it is too! David was a pleasure to deal with and also threw in a book about the Airman.
online find duplicates
Highly recommended for a great value gmt.
I also have been looking at the Airman recently, it would have to be the 36mm Purist version as this appeals to me the most I think follow by the GMT version.
I've worn this far more than I expected to since Christmas. GIven the number of options I have it's a constant surprise to me that my hand drifts to the Airman so often. It now sits on a GGB strap, which is comfort personified. With lots of use the lume really grew too, within a short time it really did start to shine like an arc-light, contrary to early impressions. Time-keeping has remained right on the money too. Initial impressions that they've gone the extra mile or two on quality and are serious about lifting the brand borne out over a few months. It feels vastly more than €700 and is a keeper.
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