In The Simpsons’ episode ‘Treehouse of Horror XXIV’ Bart menaces local air traffic by flying his new box kite near Springfield Airport.
“Kite at 2 o’clock!” warns the co-pilot of a fighter jet.
“I don’t know what that means,” responds his colleague. “I have a digital watch!”
Of course he does. No one in aviation has used a watch to fly a plane for decades, if they ever did.
None of this has made the style any less popular. Built-in computers and other instruments might have made pilot watch functionality obsolete, but their design – loosely defined as having large open dials, prominent hands and grippable crowns – still resonates.
Zenith’s history with pilot watches dates back to the early days of aviation, when it filed a trademark for the French word ‘pilate’ in 1888, doing similar with the English word ‘pilot’ six years later.
While anyone can use the word ‘pilot’ to describe their watches, Zenith remains the one and only brand allowed to write the word on its dials.
It literally owns the skies.
In 1909 French pilot Louis Blériot became the first man to fly across the English Channel and wore a chrome-plated Zenith with a black enamel dial as he did so.
The pilot range has been Zenith’s longest-standing line ever since, and forms the centrepiece of its first major launches of 2023.
The relaunched models, redesigned from scratch, lean away from the vintage looks of previous releases, in favour of a cleaner, more modern aesthetic.
They include a 40mm time-only version, the Pilot Automatic, in steel or black ceramic. And a 42.5mm ‘big date’ flyback chronograph version, the Pilot Bog Date Flyback, also in a steel or black ceramic option.
All four models feature an open case back through which the watch’s blackened oscillating weight is visible, said to recall the ‘artificial horizon’ dashboard instrument found on cockpits.
The Pilot Big Date Flyback comes in two distinct versions. The stainless steel version is inspired by one of the brand’s El Primero flyback chronographs, known as the ‘rainbow flyback’, because of the alternating colours on its minutes scale. The black ceramic version is comes with luminescent white markers and a black corrugated dial.
Since the launch of its hit Chronomaster Sport in 2021, Zenith has been on a roll. We love these new pilot models – particularly the simple three-hand versions, which are the perfect mix of brand new and retro.
They’d wear well with anything, and would look equally good on civilian, pilot – or an animated character spooked by a box kite somewhere above Springfield.
From £6,700; zenith-watches.com
