December 2007

A few years back I wrote a review of the Breitling B-1.  I really liked that watch, and kinda wish I still had it, but six months ago or so I sold it (along with parting with some old music equipment and doing some side photography work) to fund the purchase of an Emergency model.  Why?  Two reasons mostly:

• Both my job and priorities changed.
• Steve Fossett^w disappeared off the face of the Earth on a routine flight (and a million dollars in search effort never found him).

d o u g   r e e v e s   p h o t o s

I'm now self employed and run www.VansAirForce.net full time.  I no longer spend a large part of the day in a noisy data center timing backup tape events and watching a robot (mostly) work, or sit in long dull status meetings (thank God).  Now I fly a LOT more (but usually as part of a flight of two or more).  And, as I pass 1,000 hours of flight time PIC, I find I'm getting more and more conservative in regards to my safety comfort level.  When Steve Fosset went hiding the deal was sealed.  I wanted another ELT in the plane, specifically on my body, that I could activate if I was conscious.

One of my hobbies these days is improving my chances of living a longer life - even more so now that my wife and I have two small kids.  Things I was PERFECTLY comfortable with doing fifteen years ago give me pause now.  Flying at night, single engine IFR, motorcycles, having bottle rocket fights, driving on the freeway on a Saturday night, seeing how fast I can snow ski, going out on New Year's Eve, going to the doctor, the list gets longer every year...  Cluck, cluck.

So, I bought and now wear this watch.  Let's talk about it...

Differences between the B-1 I Previously Owned and the Emergency:

• ELT
  That's the whole point, right?  ELTs in light aircraft are notorious for not working as advertised (they are supposed to activate on a hard landing or crash).  If you survive the crash, but are injured, and the plane's ELT doesn't activate or is broken, you're royally screwed.  Steve Fossett's ELT didn't auto-activate (and the plane was legally require to carry one and have it inspected yearly).  If you can pull an antennae out from something already strapped to your wrist you might have a chance.  Cheap insurance... 
   
• Scrolling through the screens.
  • Same as the B-1.  Done by spinning the crown with your thumb.  Pulling your thumb towards you over the crown is the equivalent to 'PgDn' - pushing your thumb over it is 'PgUp'.  No tiny buttons to find, remember what they do, or stumble over trying to push in with your fingernail.  There are (8) 'screens' in the Emergency and they follow this order:
     
    1. Day of Week / Date
       • ex.    MO   10       (means 'Monday the 10th').  See image above.
          
    2. Countdown Timer (TM appears in upper window)
        
    3. 2nd Time Zone (T2 appears in upper window)  Usually set to GMT if you're a pilot.
       
       doug reeves photo.
        
    4. Stopwatch (CHR appears in upper window)
        
    5. Alarm (AL appears in upper window)
        
    6. Blank screen
        
    7. Local time
        
    8. Seconds / Date
       • ex.    45   10       (means '45 seconds past top of minute on the 10th')
          
• No night light
  I do miss this.  I used it primarily to get to the restroom in the middle of the night.  A nightlight in there solved the problem.  There are occasions when I want to know the time after sundown, but charging up the lum on the hands in a car headlight or similar before I get out in the dark is my workaround.  The 12/3/6/9 numbers are all painted in lum and each hour marker has a lum'd dot.  You can't set the alarm in the dark, however, something you could do with the nightlight-equipped B-1.
   
• Alarm volume difference
  The alarm on the B-1 was LOUD.  The alarm on the Emergency is about 75% as loud.  Could be due to the caseback design of the B-1.  Don't know.  I no longer work in a loud data center, so this isn't much of an issue.
   
• Bigger
  Due to the two ELT antennas, the case is noticeably larger that the B-1.  In fact it's noticeably larger than most watches.  It grows on you.
  
  You've probably heard this...
     Q: What do you get when you cross an ape with a pilot?
     A:  An ape with a really big watch.

d o u g   r e e v e s   p h o t o

• No second hand
  Not as big a deal as I would have thought.  There is a screen you can scroll to that displays the digital seconds on the left and the date on the right.  On the times I need to know EXACTLY the top of the hour, for example, I have that option.  Most of the time I leave the watch in T2 mode (GMT), so I always know the seconds, albeit in digital format.
   
• Starting stopwatch
  On the B-1 you simply pressed the 'start stopwatch' button.   On the Emergency you have to scroll to the stopwatch (CHR) screen and press the crown in.  To reset the counter you hold the crown in for several seconds.  I usually leave the watch in the 'T2' (GMT) screen.  To get to the stopwatch requires me to pull my thumb across the crown (1) time quickly to get to that function, and then push in the crown.  This is something I can easily do in the dark without looking.  Part of my takeoff checklist is to pre-set the watch to stopwatch mode (CHR).  A few seconds after liftoff, on the upwind leg, I depress the crown to start it.  After I land and turn the transponder to 'Standby', I press the crown again to stop the watch.  This gives me an accurate accounting of the time I actually was in flight - which is useful to know occasionally.  I have a panel mounted timer that records engine on time.
   
• No E6B
  My eyes aren't what they use to be.  Now I can FEEL them trying to focus a bit when looking at small print.  Ugh.  My GPS does all these calculations, anyway.
   
• No Countdown Bezel
  The Emergency has a compass bezel.  The B-1 had a countdown bezel.  I'd prefer a mix of both (discussed below).
   

At the current time, when I fly my plane, I currently have on my person:

• Breitling Emergency (on a 20mm Maratac Zulu 4-buckle watch strap with a Suunto clip on compass).  If one of the spring bars fail, the watch won't fall of your wrist like it would do with a bracelet.  Both spring bars would need to fail for it to leave your wrist.
     
   
• Spot Satellite Messenger (link).  They would have found Steve Fossett in 30 minutes if this had been in his plane (in tracking mode).
     
   
• My Survival Vest on (when flying as a flight of one.)
     

How I now use the Breitling Emergency day to day:

• What screen do I leave up most of the time? 
  T2 (GMT mode).  When I push the new edition of www.VansAirForce.net online, I have it in the T2 screen so I'll have GMT in front of me.  I like to put the exact GMT time it's pushed out on the front page - and I recognize that sounds way anal retentive.  I leave it in T2 when I'm looking at online weather maps, also.  I don't like doing math in my head <g>.
   
• Why blue? 
  Blue goes with most things.  The yellow and orange dial options stand out too much for my daily use.  Black or grey would have been my second choice.
   
• Using the countdown timer.
  Say you want to call someone in an hour.  One flick of the thumb and I'm in 'TM' mode.  Pull out the crown and spin it FAST - the countdown clock will advance one hour for each FAST spin and two or three minutes for each SLOW spin (you can control the amount).  Push in the crown to start the clock running.
   
• Setting the Alarm.  Same technique as setting the countdown timer.  FAST turns increase the hour, SLOW turns the minutes.  Pushing the crown toggles between on and off.
   
• Compass bezel
  • What day is it?  I usually leave the watch in T2 (GMT) mode, so I use the bezel as a 'date indicator'.  I swing '10' around to the top if it's the first of the month, '120' represents the twelfth, '310' is the thirty first.  You get the idea - swing the bezel one position each day.  Using the watch in this fashion lets me get GMT time (in the window), seconds (window), local time (hands) and date (bezel) all at a glance.
     
  • When did the Mrs. say she'd be back this afternoon?
    I align 'N' with whatever hour she said she'd be back.  It changes daily and I have a short attention span.
     
  • Wind direction.
    I get the METAR for the wind direction before I leave the house for the airport - just a reminder.  Sometimes I dial in the runway I'll be using at my destination so I don't bugger up the radio call (ex. I always forget nearby Hicks airport has a runway 14 - most of the others around here are 17).  You sound like SUCH a student pilot when you call out the wrong number <g>.
     
  • Fuel tank switching (on flights longer than 30 minutes)
    After takeoff I align 'N' with the minute hand.  When it sweeps around to 'S' it's time to switch tanks.
     
  • Crunch reps.
    Do ten sit ups (or whatever) and move the '10' to the 12 o'clock position.  After ten more move '20' to the top position.  Repeat until you pass out.
     
  • Crude 2nd stopwatch/countdown.  'E' is 15 minutes...'S' is 30 and so on.
     
  • Errands.
    I'm going to the grocery store for (5) things...I'll spin it until '50' is opposite the 12 position.  Don't leave Taco Bell without (7) tacos for the family.  You're picking up (4) kids from the birthday party.  That oil filter is a model 108.  You get the idea...
     
  • Somebody remind me to watch the History channel at 8pm!
    I put 'N' opposite the 8 o'clock position.
    
    You might not agree, but I find a bezel to be one of the more useful day to day functions of a watch.

Thoughts / Wish List:

• Dual purpose bezel  (I wish they could split the bezel into two functions?  An outer scale for a countdown or up function and an inner scale with compass headings?  It would be INCREDIBLY helpful both in and out of the plane (and at the soccer field).
   
• A luminous 'dot' at the 'N' location on the bezel (in case Breitling is reading this).  Like it had on the B-1.  It's pretty useful, actually.
   
• Louder alarm.
   
• Night light (I get why they don't have it, though...they want to save battery life for the emergency beacon).
   
• Bracelet.  I go back and forth on bracelets.  I think I want to wear it, so I put it back on the watch.  Then inevitably, a week later I put the cloth band back on.  The bracelet never really hangs right on my boney wrist.  On a side note, RV-7A builder and friend Walt Aronow runs a watch band business.  Give him a glance at www.LoneStarWatches.com.
   
• The minute hand doesn't move like I'd like it to.   Thirty seconds into the current minute, the minute hand isn't halfway between the two minute hash marks.  I know this is splitting hairs...
   
• It's water resistant, but not waterproof.  If they could incorporate a screw down type locking crown, that would be the bees knees.

Phasing out Satellite Monitoring of 121.5 MHz in 2009?

People make a bigger deal out of this than they need to.  SAR will use 121.5 for many, many more years to come on the ground (the signal transmitted by the watch was never strong enough to be picked up by satellites anyway).  It's always been something that circling aircraft or SAR personnel on the ground will home in on.   G. Buhyoff and A. Trott wrote a very interesting piece about the Emergency awhile back about the signal strength of the Emergency and is certainly worth a read.  I'm convinced that in 2020 people will still be monitoring 121.5 MHz in the neighborhood of a suspected plane crash.  There will probably be an upgrade path, anyway, to a new frequency down the road.  Call me crazy...

Good God, this watch is expensive when purchased new.  You have to really hunt, but you too CAN find a used one in some of the watch boards if you look long enough.  I will say, if this isn't a 'pilot watch' I don't know what is.  Let me qualify that a bit:  If you fly single engine, small aircraft over semi-remote areas this is most certainly a pilot watch you would be happy (and reassured) with.  If you fly a Boeing 737-700, you can wear a sundial on your wrist if you want - SAR won't spend more than 30 seconds looking for you.  In sharp currency contrast, the watch I wear mowing the lawn and changing the oil is still a Casio G-Shock 5600 'old school' model.  Atomic time, solar powered and a face only a mother could love.  $70.  It'll probably last 50 years, but it won't help you find me in West Texas, so I don't fly with it.

There you go.  Even bought new, the Breitling Emergency with a diver band is way cheaper than a used Rolex GMT, and has more pilot-usable features, including the very real ability to help save your life someday.  Here's hoping you never need to use it.  I occasionally fly over remote areas.  I've flown in the Idaho backcountry and over the top of the Rockies in a plane I built in the garage.  I've been in a flight of planes where one person's prop cracked and they had to land on a road in remote West Texas (luckily they were just fine and had a friend circling them in 15 seconds). 

I fly with a fully charged cell phone, an ELT in the plane, an ELT on my wrist, a satellite tracking device (in tracking mode) clipped to my pocket and survival gear.  It's a big country, life is fragile and I want to hedge my bets.  Cluck, cluck.

One last bit:  It hasn't lost or gained a second in six months - has a thermo-compensated 'SuperQuartz' movement, or some such guts in it.  A horologist could use fancier words here, but let's just leave it at 'it keeps good time'.

Thanks for reading!

Doug Reeves
www.VansAirForce.net
Builder/Pilot of Van's Aircraft RV-6 N617AR 'Flash'

Ed Hicks photo.                       Contact the author at www.DeltaRomeo.com

I'd like to thank Jamie Hayes of Feldmar Watch and Clock Center (jamie 'at' feldmarwatch.com) for helping me find this watch (www.FeldmarWatch.com (310) 274-8016).  If you ever decide to look into buying one please consider giving Jamie a call.