Just as I had made a purchase of my Glycine, I stumbled across an ad of someone looking to sell their Fortis Flieger 24h. I had been looking for this watch for quite some time but figured with them being limited edition and no longer in production, the chances of ever finding one would be slim to none. So when I saw it available I simply HAD to ask if the seller was willing to hold it for me while I figured out how to get it.
Fast Forward to nowadays - it is an amazing looking watch. At 40 mm it's on the smaller side for my wrist (and the strap is kinda short) but it wears very well and seems bigger than it is because the lack of thick bezel. Definitely one to wear Very Frequently - I'm gonna need more wrists! ;)
I've ALWAYS (well at least since I got serious about 24 hour watches) wanted a Glycine Airman. I figured 'one day' I would save up enough and get myself a nice Base 22 in the typical Black/Silver combination that I really like.
Of course it would have to be the Purist version because what's the point of a nice 24 hour dial if the main hands are still on 12 hours.. Ever since my other 24 hour watches I've 'unofficially' gone total 24 hours, where I promised myself I would not buy any more 12 hour watches (ok.. maybe an exception here or there like the Vostok.. ;) )
I was just browsing seeing what was out there and I notice a pretty damn good sale going on some Glycines... while they did not offer the Base 22 like the one above in a Purist they had a very interesting Black / Rubber Version... Model Number 3927.191-66.LB9B
Turns out I'm looking at the Glycine Airman 17 Sphair Purist..
I debated for about two hours whether to get it. I had to look up the sizing which is kind of weird (small to large it's Airman 18,22 and then 17 being the largest) but then I just bit the bullet and went ahead and ordered it after seeing some pictures on line of people wearing it.
NO Regrets! It's an AMAZING watch. Great attention to Detail, Quality through-out.
Sizing wise it's 46mm, definitely larger, but it fits great on my wrist. Of course now I'm going to need a watch winder since this is my first automatic :)
Now if only someone would just make a 24hour chronograph already that's affordable.. Looking at you @Breitling..
After getting both my H3 Tactical 24 hour watch and the Sturmanskie / Poljot Aviator I really wanted to get myself a chronograph. A 24 hour one would've been perfect but super low availability + cost were just not going to make that happen (Looking at you Breitling.... )
I did a lot of digging and found some really interesting ones - I'm however a sucker for a limited run (even if artificially so lol), so when I found the Jurgis Kairys Chronograph by Vostok Europe I was sold. Basically it's a limited edition based on the Vostok Europe 'Explorer' Model with some embelishments such as a Jurgis' signature and aircraft watch back.
It came in a nice hard case box and with 3 straps (Brown Leather, Rubber and Black Nato).
I wore the brown leather strap for some time before switching over to the Nato strap. It took some getting used to, but now I'm a big fan of Nato straps. The one that came with the watch is at least 12" / 300mm long, and fits just right, and makes me wonder how people wear those 270mm ones..
Meanwhile I recently found out they've made an updated version of this watch with a Blue/Yellow color scheme which looks very good as well
Case Diameter: 47mm
Strap Width: 24mm
Configuration: Hour, Minute, Chrono Seconds
Complications: Small Seconds , 60 minute Chrono, Date
Movement: Miyota 6S21
Water Resistance: 20ATM / 200M
Hand Sizes: 70/120/17
Battery: 399
Watch Stem: 065-A13, Tap 10
After I got my 24 hr Russian Aviator I had the 'bug' and wanted to keep finding collecting 24 hour watches. After some googling I ran across these H3 Tactical watches that had tritium tubes instead of the regular lume which was 'different'. I also really like their clean lines, and color scheme they chose. I was kind of stuck between this and the 'Messerschmitt' 24 hour watch (ME108-24DR) , but in the end this one won out because it had midnight on top.
Still had the protective cover on the glass
I really like this watch a lot and it has quickly become my daily wear watch. The only issue I had after a month or so was that the hour hand was dangling loose. I sent it back to Switzerland and they were luckily able to fix it under warranty. Now I'm looking at either a NATO strap to go with it or maybe a replacement official strap because it fits REALLY well, yet it's getting old & discolored.. (should probably wear a nato strap during the summer.. :\ )
All in all a GREAT 24 hour watch
Copy & pasted from the Uhren-Sherriff site :
Technical details:
Manufacturer:
H3 TACTICAL (Switzerland)
Series:
Stealth Mission
Housing:
Satin Stainless Steel
Diameter 42mm without crown
(I measured 44)
Height 12mm
screwed case back
waterproof 10ATM
Work:
Ronda 515.24 (Switzerland)
Quartz movement with battery
Battery time is about 2 years
Glass:
Mineral glass
Dial:
black dial
24 hours scale
Date at 6
by hand on the dial applied glow sticks
Markers and hands glow in the dark by self-luminous tritium rods
white and blue bright
ensures permanent clear night readability
This is where my my obsession if you will started with 24 hours.. I was already used to 'military' or 'european' time.. writing down 8PM? Hell no, that's 20:00 (but I'll still call it 8..). At work we had a 24 hour wall clock which I really liked so I found some windows Gadgets that included a 24 hour clock which was really cool. After a while running that on my computer I thought : 'Why don't they have watches like that??" - Did some searching and WOW.. there's quite a few out there! Obsession Started :)
So I came across Raketa's / Poljot Aviators... what stood out to me was that a lot of them were the same.. yet 'slightly different'? Holy Crap, Enter the hornet's nest of FAKES..
It turns out a LOT of these watches are being (re)made as fakes. I really wanted an original so I did a TON of reading on forums like WatchUSeek etc. I learned a ton in a short amount of time and had some tell-tale signs to look out for such as
* Minute & hour hands made of multiple pieces of lume
* No Date window
* Wrong Case Back
* Wrong / Generic Movement
So after digging and finally finding a trustworthy vendor I was able to purchase one! The straps were a bit short, and the watch is on the smaller side for my wrist being 40mm, but it still looks good. Definitely will need to get a good NATO strap to go with it.
Some specs from here:
https://www.poljot24.de/en/24-stundenuhren-poljot/aviator-24-hour-watch.html
Diameter40mm-height12mm
This rare Aviator24-hour watch hasa high qualitybrushedstainless steel case lwith40mmdiameter, 20mm bandwidth, a slightlycurved , hardened mineralglassandascrewed and decorated watchback.
The black dialwith aviatorsymbol shows very well readable , greenluminous numbers andluminous hands(Superluminova) andan orangeseconds hand.
I still remember some of my first watches - the Typical 80's Casio Calculator watch (where I could barely press the buttons because they were so tiny), or a favorite of mine was this 'Swatch' watch with a black rubber strap and a mirror dial. I have no idea what happened to these over time. Then I received my first 'nicer' watch (hey it even came in a tin!) - the Fossil LU-2553 Blue StarMaster.
I wore that watch for years and it's been beat to hell though as you can tell from the pictures.
I really liked how the entire dial lit up - but that also meant it was a huge battery hog (yet somehow it even was when I barely touched the button for it). Nowadays I don't even bother replacing the battery because it just drains it so quickly and with it being on the small size ( 'guessing' around 30-some mm?) it's just too small for my liking. I see these on Ebay once in a while going for about $20... so they're not worth much either ;)
