Of all the various horological archetypes out there, the pilots’ watch may just be the most open to interpretation. At one end of the scale, you have the mil-spec pieces evolved from the same gene pool as field watches, stripped back to basics and designed to go through hell. At the other, you have those designed for the aviators of today, the globe-trotting jet-set in need of GMTs and something that’ll look good in the first-class cabin. There are some core characteristics of a pilots’ watches, of course. Expect oversized numerals, clear, legible dials sprinkled with the occasional chronograph, and bi-directional bezels aplenty. Regardless of where you land – military airstrip or private terminal – there has been a whole flight of new pilots’ watches this year. From vintage DNA to night-glow weirdness, compact steel beaters to full-gold complications, here are our picks for the best pilots’ watches of 2025.
AVI-8 Hawker Hurricane Clowes Automatic Capcom 1942 Pixel
Even I’m not old enough to have played much 1942 (apologies if you are but you need to accept facts), but the retro shooter has provided a font of inspiration for cockpit-obsessed watch brand AVI-8 in their follow-up collab with Capcom. The base watch is classic pilots’ fare, a big, rugged steel case, a fluted, flight glove-worthy crown, leather strap, you know the drill. But the dial is pixellated into a facsimile of the game’s 8-bit graphics. There are three variations but for my money, the black’s the most wearable. The trees, aircraft and pixellated numerals are eye-catching enough without throwing more colour into the mix! Best of all, it’s accessible enough that you’ll have a few arcade-ready quarters left over.
Case/dial: 46mm diameter x 13.8mm thickness, stainless steel case, pixellated 8-bit dial
Water resistance: 50m (5 bar)
Movement: Seiko calibre NH35, automatic, 41h power reserve
Strap: Brown leather
Price: £279
Yema Flygraf Pilot
Yema’s Flygraf pilots’ always been an archivally flavoured collection but with the latest edition they’re going full neo-vintage with a new sector dial. The sharply faceted case feels a bit more modern than its 1930s and ‘40s inspiration (though perhaps that the ongoing industry obsession with sports luxe), but the railway track minute scale, dot hour markers and multi-level dial all lean into the kind of designs that have served brands like Baltic so well. And best of all, the new dial suits the hell out of the Flygraf. With its oversized 12, three, six and nine there’s no mistaking it for anything other than a pilots’ watch, but it’s one you can wear – and will want to wear – outside of the cockpit, too.
Case/dial: 38.5mm diameter x 8.8mm thickness, stainless steel case, sector dial with sandblasted finish
Water resistance: 100m (10 bar)
Movement: Sellita calibre SW200, automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 38h power reserve
Price: £894
Stowa Flieger Sunray Green
It’s not all black and white in the world of pilots’ watches – at least if Stowa have anything to say about it. And given they created the blueprint for the archetypal Fliger, they’re worth listening to. Their latest take on the classic German flier has the same, straightforward markings you expect, but set against a sunburst gradient dial in a Black Forest green. It’s a perfect colour for something like this, edging into military khaki in some lights but with that shimmering finish to make it feel dressier. And in the 36mm version, it’s one of the few proper, purebred pilots’ watches suited to smaller wrists. That alone is worth a round of applause.
Case/dial: 36mm diameter x 10.8mm thickness, stainless steel case, sunburst green dial
Water resistance: 50m (5 bar)
Movement: Sellita calibre SW200, automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 38h power reserve
Price: €1,084.03 (approx. £950)
Laco Köln
While they’re best known for Fliegers in varying degrees of ruggedness, that doesn’t mean LACO are a one-trick pilot, even if said trick is forever in demand. The new Köln takes that classic cockpit DNA and puts it in a new 41mm case that feels slightly more contemporarily proportioned than their bigger models and is defined by an unusual four o’clock crown flanked by protectors. It’s still pure aviation of course, this is still Laco, and that means a Type A dial complete with iron sights 12 o’clock marker and a clean, high-contrast dial for immediate readability. In short, the Köln riffs on the archetype Laco helped define in a way that shows just how much room for manoeuvre there is while keeping true to form.
Case/dial: 41mm diameter x 12mm thickness, stainless steel case, matte black dial
Water resistance: 200m (20 bar)
Movement: Sellita calibre SW200, automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 38h power reserve
Price: €1,190 (approx. £1,050)
Bulova Lunar Pilot Timascus
Of all the materials to be having a moment, I’d have never expected it to be Damascus titanium. Hell, before 2025 I didn’t realise Damascus titanium existed – but here we are, with a pilots’ watch dial in iridescent waves of lightweight metal. A collaboration with Thiago Rosinhole, the new Lunar Pilot is fittingly out of this world, transforming the unashamedly retro, World’s Fair-esque space watch into a wrist-mounted art piece. It’s fun, funky and a creative twist on a surprisingly historically important part of the horological Space Race. What’s not to love? You know, unless you have a thing against titanium waves like a magic eye poster. You philistine.
Case/dial: 43mm diameter, stainless steel case, Timascus titanium dial
Water resistance: 50m (5 bar)
Movement: Quartz movement
Price: £1,295
Marathon Arctic Steel Navigator Automatic
The Navigator is the kind of watch that you don’t just expect to work in the cockpit; you’d expect it to survive a particularly rough crash landing and keep on ticking. Partly that’s due to the shock-resistant Sellita movement, partly the rugged, asymmetrical stainless steel case. It doesn’t even matter if that landing happens at night thanks to tritium gas indexes – a la Ball, ProTek, and other extreme, over-engineered beasts – that glow brightly at night without the need for solar charging. Paired with a bi-directional pilots’ GMT bezel and a crisp, arctic white dial, it’s a survivor through and through.
Case/dial: 41mm diameter x 11.5mm thickness, stainless steel case, arctic white dial
Water resistance: 100m (10 bar)
Movement: Sellita calibre SW200-1, automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 38h power reserve
Price: £1,300
Sinn 104 Classic 12
Ever wished your old, beaten-up Flieger was just a little more presentable? Sinn has you covered. Despite their obsession with uberwerked tool watches, the 104 Classic 12 takes their base pilots’ watch and turns it into something approximating a dress watch. That means a small seconds at six o’clock in a lovely cream (sorry, ‘chamois’) colour, contrasting but not too harshly with the black dial and the bi-directional pilots’ bezel. It’s sleek, streamlined and refined, elements you don’t often see from the German watchmaker – but with solid specs, which you invariably do.
Case/dial: 41mm diameter x 11.9mm thickness, stainless steel case, black dial
Water resistance: 200m (20 bar)
Movement: Sellita calibre SW261-1 automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 38h power reserve
Price: €1,714.29 (approx. £1,490)
Victorinox Air Pro Automatic
There’s technical, then there’s this. With a central GMT hand and inner rotating bezel – operable via the second crown – you can time three different timezones at once. But you don’t really need to as the Victorinox Air Pro GMT is also a worldtimer. It just saves you a bit of mental arithmetic this way. Typical of the Swiss Army Knife brand, this 13mm tall, 43mm wide beast of a pilots’ watch is also built like a tank – or perhaps AC-130? – so that, should you crash land, you’ll know precisely what time it is back home. It’s cool, over-the-top and obsessively engineered but, best of all, it’s also much, much more accessible than it looks.
Case/dial: 43mm diameter x 13mm thickness, stainless steel case, black dial
Water resistance: 200m (20 bar)
Movement: Sellita calibre SW330-2, automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 56h power reserve
Price: £1,550
Sortie BH1000
It’s hard to come up with a pilots’ watch design that’s not been done to death and let’s be honest, it was always going to be a microbrand that found a way. That brand is Sortie and their debut BH1000 pairs what would otherwise be a handsome but typical pilots watch dial with a nine o’clock small seconds. It’s a fun layout, but what makes it really work is the contrast between the sunburst sheen of the main dial and the crisp white of the subdial ring. Who doesn’t love a bit of asymmetry on their dial? Set in a sensibly sized 40mm stainless steel case complete with oversized fluted crown and equipped with a solid Sellita movement (the Elaboré version, of course) the BH1000 makes a welcome departure from the Mark XX or Flieger templates.
Case/dial: 40mm diameter x 12mm thickness, stainless steel case, green sunburst dial
Water resistance: 150m (15 bar)
Movement: Sellita calibre SW290-1, automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 41h power reserve
Price: £1,740
Longines Spirit Pilot
When Longines launched the Spirit Pilot back in 2020 (yes, it’s been that long) it quickly became one of the storied brand’s biggest modern successes, so the fact that they’re decided to refresh it for 2025 is pretty exciting. The greatest change is the 39mm case, right in the goldilocks zone, and with a reformatted dial, one that doesn’t have a negative impact on readability. In fact, the new Spirit Pilot feels more like a proper pilots’ watch than the original – which wore the ‘inspire by aviation’ angle on its sleeve in all fairness. They’ve also removed the five-star symbol which gives the entire dial more room to breathe. Somehow, despite being smaller, it feels more spacious. Longines also updated the Flyback version, but the refresh is most readily apparent on the time-only version. Now I can’t wait for the matching Zulu Time update.
Case/dial: 39mm diameter, stainless steel case, matte black dial
Water resistance: 100m (10 bar)
Movement: Longines calibre L888.4, automatic, 25,200 vph (3.5 Hz), 72h power reserve
Price: £2,150
Junghans Meister Pilot Chronoscope
If all you’ve seen from Junghans is their Bauhaus Max Bill collection, then the Meister Pilot Chronoscope may come as a bit of a surprise – an unapologetically ‘more is more’ pilots’ watch with a dramatic 12-pointed bezel, bi-compax chronograph and chunky, riveted aviation strap. Descending from vintage Bundeswehr Chronographs of the 1950s, it’s still a cool design today and a lot more eye-catching than most cockpit instruments. The latest pair crowns that style with handsome fume grey and green dials – with perfectly paired leather straps – updating a look that’s somehow remained original for 70-odd years.
Case/dial: 43.3mm diameter x 14.4mm thickness, stainless steel case, green dial
Water resistance: 100m (10 bar)
Movement: Junghans calibre J880.3 automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 42-hour power reserve
Price: €2,590 (approx. £2,272)
Micromilspec Pilot Worldtimer
Given that Micromilspec cut their teeth doing specialist watches for the Norwegian Air Force, pilots’ watches are very much part of their DNA, which meant this year’s sleek Dualtimer felt overdue. It’s their follow-up, however, that’s more interesting. Not only is it a decently accessible Worldtimer, but it’s one of the more distinctive with its blacked-out bezel. You can still read the cities through the contrast in finish, but it’s less in-your-face than the usual atlas-in-the-middle layout we’ve grown accustomed to. Paired with a chronograph, it’s one of the most high-functioning aviation watches around and with that ultra-faceted signature case, definitely among the most visually eye-catching.
Case/dial: 42mm diameter x 15mm thickness, titanium case, white dial
Water resistance: 200m (20 bar)
Movement: La Joux-Perret calibre L121, automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 60h power reserve
Price: £2,900
Airain Type 20 70 ANS
Is a vintage Breguet Type XX on your grail list? You and me both. Unfortunately, while that particular piece may be out of my price range for a while yet, the new Airain Type 20 70th Anniversary Edition scratches that same vintage aviation itch perfectly – and much more accessibly. A column wheel flyback chrono housed in 39mm of stainless steel elegance, the entire watch has been engineered to feel as close to those early French Air Force watches as possible albeit with a more modern but no less handsome horizon blue dial. Finished on a beige suede strap that echoes the archival design, this is pitch-perfect and a welcome throwback twist on Airain’s already covetable Type 20 Line.
Case/dial: 39mm diameter x 14.97mm thickness, stainless steel case, horizon blue dial
Water resistance: 50m (5 bar)
Movement: Airain calibre AM2, manual winding, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 63h power reserve
Strap: Beige suede strap
Price: €3,850 (approx. £3,350)
Tutima Grand Flieger Airport Chronograph
The very tail end of last year (close enough in December that I’m counting it for 2025) saw a welcome update to Tutima’s more technical pilots’ collection, the Grand Flieger, in the new Airport models. Ceramic, bidirectional bezels, cordura straps and lovely coloured dials in blue, and this distinctive green and red combo refresh a collection that stretches back to the Tutima Fliegerchronograph from the 1940s. Equipped with an in-house German movement visible through the exhibition caseback, this is the kind of aesthetic update I love.
Case/dial: 41mm diameter, stainless steel case, Green dégradé bezel
Water resistance: 200m (20 bar)
Movement: Tutima calibre 310, automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 48h power reserve
Price: £3,690
Bremont Altitude MB Meteor Stealth Grey
No matter what your thoughts on the current direction of the once-iconic British brand, Bremont’s 2025 launches have been knocking it out the park. While I’m a huge fan of the latest brushed silver dialled MB range, it’s this that’s made the biggest impact. Get it? Because it has a meteor dial. Well, a meteorite-embossed dial. While the monochromatic dark grey across the watch does obscure the simulated widmanstatten pattern, it really lives up to its Stealth moniker and I’m here for it. At once it’s both the most macho and the most refined Bremont for a while and thankfully retains the ejector seat-inspired seconds hand. It’s just a shame to see they’ve ditched the old logo on a pilots’ watch.
Case/dial: 42mm diameter x 12.23mm thickness, titanium case, meteorite pattern dial
Water resistance: 100m (10 bar)
Movement: Bremont calibre BB14-AH, automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 68h power reserve
Price: £5,750, limited to 400 pieces
Fortis Novonaut N-42 Titanium Legacy
Another ode to a (literally) higher level of aviation, the Novonaut series as a whole draws its DNA from the famous B-42 Cosmonauts Chronograph and that technical lineage shows. However, while the latest edition has much the same combination of tricompax 12-9-6 chronograph – flanked with a day-date – and bidirectional bezel as previous Novonauts, this time the big, 42mm case (44mm if you include the bezel) is in titanium. That marks a huge improvement on wearability for what is a big, brawny watch, and the darker colour of the metal suits the mission-ready style of a watch built for space.
Case/dial: 42mm diameter x 15mm thickness, titanium case, matte black ceramic bezel
Water resistance: 200m (20 bar)
Movement: Fortis calibre Werk 17, automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 60h power reserve
Price: £5,800
IWC Pilot’s Watch Automatic 41 Top Gun Mojave Desert
IWC’s obsession with coloured ceramic has taken in some lovely colours – including the latest light blue Miramar – but it’s hard to be the OG version. The sandy ceramic of the Mojave Desert edition is as cool as ever and here on the non-chrono automatic Pilot’s Watch, it looks better than ever. The earthy, tone-on-tone dial marks a nice twist on the well-trodden high-contrast route without sacrificing any of that military feel. Equipped with a more-than-solid engine with a 120-hour power reserve, I’m not sure you can find a more convincing, strait-laced aviation watch out there. More prestigious, sure; more accessible definitely. But better at what it does? Unlikely.
Case/dial: 41mm diameter x 11.4mm thickness, sand-coloured ceramic case, brown dial
Water resistance: 100m (10 bar)
Movement: IWC calibre 32112, automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 120h power reserve
Price: £7,300
Bell & Ross BR-X3 Night Vision
We’re seeing more and more novel uses of lume these days, but when it comes to low-light innovation, it’s hard to beat Bell & Ross. The BR-X3 Night Vision takes their cockpit-swiped square case and renders it in what they’re calling LUM-CAMO, a kind of carbon spiked through with glowing green lume. There’s lashings of the stuff across the skeletonised dial, too and the whole effect is of something that looks cool in the daylight but in the dark imitates a fighter jet heads-up display with a worrying amount of accuracy. Just don’t leave it on your bedside table unless you need a night light; even flipping it onto the dial side won’t stop this radioactive glow.
Case/dial: 41mm diameter x 13.3mm thickness, LUM-CAMO composite with black PVD-coated titanium elements, skeletonised dial
Water resistance: 100m (10 bar)
Movement: Bell & Ross calibre BR-CAL.323, automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 70h power reserve
Price: £11,900, limited to 250 pieces
Omega Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon Red
If you count astronauts as pilots (which most of them originally were) then there’s no more iconic pilots’ watch than Omega’s Speedmaster. Granted, it started as a racing watch, but once it saved a shuttle crew during re-entry, it earned its wings. This latest version however eschews the practical black-on-white look in favour of a more tonally calm grey on black, in keeping with the broader Dark Side of the Moon sub-collection. Unlike its all-black cousin, the so-called Black Red is much more readable with a bright red chronograph hand to maintain at-a-glance readability. With an almost sinister new blacked-out, manual-wind movement, it’s the darker side of the Speedmaster and cooler than a vintage Pink Floyd tee.
Case/dial: 44.25mm diameter x 13.02mm thickness, ceramic case, black dial with bright red chronograph hand
Water resistance: 50m (5 bar)
Movement: Omega calibre 9908, manual winding, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 60h power reserve
Price: £13,500
Breitling Navitimer B19
The legendary Breitling Navitimer already squeezes more information than anyone outside of a cockpit needs into a watch, but for 2025 the brand has gone one step further and thrown a full perpetual calendar into the mix. Because at this point, why not? Paired with a pitch-perfect ice blue dial and black signature slide-rule bezel (which is actually made from platinum rather than the steel of the case), it looks every inch the perfect private jet accessory. Yes, it’s more than you need, but the Navitimer’s never been a minimalist and when it looks this good, sometimes you just need to go for it. Just try to avoid a water landing.
Case/dial: 43mm diameter x 14.94mm thickness, stainless steel case, ice blue dial, black slide-rule bezel (platinum)
Water resistance: 30m (3 bar)
Movement: Breitling calibre B19, automatic, 28,800 vph (4 Hz), 96h power reserve
Price: £25,650
Breguet Type XX Chronographe 2075
As Breguet’s 2025 rebrand continues apace to celebrate their 250th anniversary, they’ve been knocking it out the park with some superb, historically inspired releases – not the least of which is this stunning twist on the iconic 1950s Type XX civilian pilots’ watch. This isn’t your typical beater, designed to be read at a glance and survive a crash-landing; this is a cockpit instrument as a grail watch. Draped in Breguet’s new, proprietary gold – basically rose gold with blonde highlights – it’s the most haute horological pilots’ watch around that doesn’t house a high complication. Yes, I’d love to see a new steel version, but maybe that’s for next year. Please?
Case/dial: 38.3mm diameter x 13.2mm thickness, Breguet gold case, black dial
Water resistance: 50m (5 bar)
Movement: Breguet calibre 7272, manual winding, 72,000 vph (10 Hz), 60h power reserve
Price: £37,000
Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time
Patek Philippe had a lot to love at Watches & Wonders 2025, but the one watch I’ll remember best is this beauty. We were overdue a new Calatrava Pilot Travel Time, but the clean, cream dial, the khaki strap, it all felt closer to a pure pilots’ watch than I expected from Patek Philippe. Yes, it’s still white gold so I wouldn’t recommend an RAF engineer wear it on the daily, but it’s just the right amount of subtle nodding to pilots’ watch history. Patek Philippe invariably make gorgeous timepieces (whatever you might like to say about the Cubitus) and you’ll probably see more than a few on a first-class flight – but with its traveller’s complication and aviation look, this might be the single most appropriate watch you could own for a true jet-set lifestyle.
Case/dial: 42mm diameter x 10.78mm thickness, white gold case, cream dial
Water resistance: 30m (3 bar)
Movement: Patek Philippe calibre 26-330 S C FUS, automatic, 45h power reserve
Strap: Khaki composite material
Price: £52,180
Great “across the board” review covering all price points, and showing some weird and wonderful watches.
In terms of the weird, the shape of the Junghans Meister Pilot Chronoscope is akin to a 1960’s Le Mans racecar’s knock off wheel nuts, just a bit wield for me. Then there is the Bell & Ross BR-X3 Night Vision, that looks as though it’s been lifted from an Apache military helicopter dashboard, not a wristwatch.
So for me, it’s down to 3 choices. If cost wasn’t an issue to consider, I would go for the Breguet Type XX Chronographe 2075, gorgeous! In terms of a more realistic cost choice, it’s a tough decision between the Airain Type 20 70 ANS or the Longines Spirit Pilot, but, as it’s a given and knowing that I’m a hugh fan of Longines, I would be buying that.
Yes, I know it’s a review of pilots watches and that needs to cover all arenas, we are really talking about a watch for travellers and not specialist fighter pilot types, so practicality and a level of style acceptance has to be considered, even it you are a James Bond type.
Solid list, for sure. I have a Marathon SSNAV, and it is an amazing watch. I’d put it up against any other serious tool watch out there.
I have to say though, I would certainly put one of the Hamilton Khaki Aviation models on this list as well.
Hamilton khaki pilot 39mm should also be on this list.