The original flieger watches were massive 55mm in case width and came on a long leather straps with rivets to tie over your flight gloves or in some cases even over the ankle. As modern fliegers evolved for civilian wear, 42mm to 45mm cases became acceptable. The current trend has the watches sizes beginning to normalize under 40mm. Besides, many of us are endowed with a medium-size wrist (nothing wrong with that), so 36mm to 39mm Pilots watch makes for a perfect fit. Let’s not leave out ladies who love flieger watches as well. Therefore, today we present five flieger watches under 39mm size.
Archimede Pilot 36
Pilot 36 is a clean black flieger dial with no date and a proportionately large diamond crown. The satin-finished 36mm stainless steel case is manufactured by parent company, Ickler, in Pforzheim, Germany. It has a sapphire crystal, screw down case back with mineral crystal, and is water resistant to 50 meters.
The case thickness is 9.8mm, which is slim enough to wear under the shirt cuff. The watch is powered by Sellita SW 200-1 automatic movement. The price on leather strap is €554.62 without VAT.
Laco Pilot 39
Laco has four flieger watches that are 39mm case size. First is the Augsburg 39, which has the Baumuster A type dial. The second is the Aachen 39, which has the Baumuster B type dial. Both watches come with a matt finished stainless steel case with 12mm thickness, sapphire crystal, and are waterproof up to 50 meters.The watch is powered by Japanese Miyota 821A movement and comes with a brown calf leather strap with rivets. The price of either watch is $410 USD.
The Mulheim and Kempten are higher quality with Elaboré ETA automatic or hand winding movement, thermally blued hands, “FL23883 engraving”, and domed anti-reflective sapphire crystal. The price for either version is $1,130 USD.
Damasko DS 30
The Damasko DS 30 pilots watch packs a lot of neat technology built into the case, crown, and the movement. The 39mm case is bead blasted submarine steel. The sapphire crystal has anti-reflective coating on both sides. The screw-in solid case back has a synthetic rubber and fluoropolymer elastomer O-ring gasket.
The Screw-down crown comes with crown protection and is fully hardened including mechanism. DS 30 is water resistant to 100 meters. Since it is powered by slim ETA 2836-2 automatic movement, the thickness of the case is only 9.9mm. The price of the watch is €980.00 including 19% German VAT.
Sinn 556
Sinn’s inspiration for the design of this watch is the historic Sinn NaBo clocks long manufactured for use in cockpits as a navigational tool. The 556 model has a 38.5mm satin stainless steel case with a thickness of 11mm. The front sapphire crystal has anti-reflective coating on both sides. The case back sapphire crystal has an anti-reflective coating on the inside.
The 556 has a screw-down crown and is water resistant to 200 meters. The watch is powered by Top Grade ETA 2424-2 automatic movement. The price of the watch on leather strap is $1,080 USD.
Stowa Flieger Klassik 36
Interestingly Stowa made 10 limited editions of 36mm flieger in 1997, but in platinum! Twenty years later Stowa relaunched the 36mm flieger in stainless steel case with both Baumuster A and Baumuster B type dials. The watch is offered in various configurations, but our favorite is the sterile dial with no logo or date.
Stowa offers finely finished thermally blued hands. The flieger can be ordered with either ETA Top Grade ETA 2824-2 automatic movement, or ETA 2804-2 hand winding movement. The case height is 10.2mm. The price of Flieger Klassik 36 is €831.93 without VAT.
Photo Credit: Mike Stuffler, Laco, Ickler, Sinn, and Stowa