The Breitling Aerospace is one of my all time favourite watch. I just love the way it looks, more so with the black dial as the LCD seems to float as you can't really see the LCD window cut-out. But my love for the watch started a long time back when I was working on aircraft.
One of my bosses back then, known as the shift foreman had one and he never took it off even when he was working. Boy was I impressed. It was drenched in hydraulic fluid, oils, water, coke (we use coke to clean cockpit window), well just about anything and everything that you find on an aircraft. After work, he would just wash his hands and the watch with soap and that was it.
Later I found out that a bunch of pilots I did my training with (they did pilot training, I did aircraft engineering), bought a couple via their pilot association (the association emblem was on the dial). About 100 pieces were issued. How cool is that.
I have always wanted to get one but never got around doing it. To top it up, the price of the watch goes up every year. Sigh.... It did not help when I was on holiday in England recently. We were out to watch the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. After the event was over, we took a stroll in Green Park. We came across a helicopter. It was from the London Air Ambulance. It had landed in Green Park as there was in accident in the area.
The helicopter, a McDonnell Douglas MD 902 Explorer. It is a NOTAR (NO TAil Rotor) helicopter.
A better photograph.
Photograph: Wiki
Anyway I was interested in what watch was the pilot wearing. Here it is.
It is the Breitling Aerospace. This is the model with the updated B65 chiming module. My former boss had the model from 1996 with the non-italic hour index but with the legend 'Repetition Minutes' above the lower LCD window instead of 'Aerospace' found in older models. The helicopter pilot, I believe is wearing the updated model from 1998/ 1999 with the Italic hour index, reference F65362, titanium with gold rider tabs on the bezel. I want one.....
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