Timekeeping with extreme accuracy is important outside of professional sports. Precise marine chronometers were employed on research missions and commercial ships as early as the 1880s. In order to enable precise timekeeping and navigation on ships and airplanes at the turn of the 20th century, watchmakers provided chronometers to the maritime and aerospace sectors. Later, they drew on this experience to create their diving and pilot watch collections. The evolution of the pilot’s watch serves as an example of this. The Wright brothers launched the first successful efforts at flight in the early 20th century, and the pilot watch quickly rose to the status of an essential piece of equipment on board.

It was a leather-cased pocket watch worn on the wrist or mounted to the cockpit during the First World War. For precise time, these vintage pilot watches have a small seconds dial. As soon as planes could fly longer distances, pilot watches were used for navigation. These massive, incredibly accurate observation timepieces were worn over uniforms on the wrist and used to calculate longitude. On board, “observers” read the watches.

Charles A. Lindbergh became the first aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1927. He tried to navigate using the airspeed indicator on the plane, a compass, and a watch, but he wasn’t happy with it. A timepiece with a bidirectional bezel displaying the Greenwich hour angle, a crucial factor in establishing longitude, was developed at Lindbergh’s request.

What is a tool watch?

Large and imposing, tool watches have sturdy bodies, wide bezels, high-contrast bright displays, and are extremely water-resistant. The majority of tool watches have an automated movement. Sport watches, a subset of timepieces having additional electronic features for tracking heart rate, pulse, and sleep quality, are distinguished from tool watches by these features. Your specific sport and lifestyle needs will determine the suggested features of your tool watch. The most crucial information has been provided for your knowledge.