AOPA Breitling Watches...

timwinters

timwinters

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...a couple of hilarious threads are running over on Red regarding AOPA's latest "cranial rectitus" marketing strategy.

A special edition AOPA 75th anniversary Breitling watch with AOPA's logo plastered on it and it's only $1,500 more than a Breitling without all the extra crap.

Thank God I've successfully blocked all of AOPA's marketing spam.
 
First of all Breitlings are a joke. Overpriced, mall watch bling with over busy dials that try to market themselve as an "aviation watch". Pure drivel. The current Breitling has NO relationship to the previous company, and absolutely NO "aviation heritage".
 
I like watches, but I've never owned what I'd consider a "nice" one. But it is on my bucket list someday, if I have the spare $$$ to get one.

But I'm not a fan of Breitling. Rolex neither.

Now, if there was an AOPA IWC Portuguese, that might get my attention.
 
Anthony said:
First of all Breitlings are a joke. Overpriced, mall watch bling with over busy dials that try to market themselve as an "aviation watch". Pure drivel. The current Breitling has NO relationship to the previous company, and absolutely NO "aviation heritage".
Click to expand...

Have they recently sold? My understanding is it is the same company since the 1880's.

There was a watch sold by Breitling that was that had AOPA on it in the 1960's. If Breitling want to sell watches that have AOPA on the dial and AOPA receives money to let them do that, then I am all for it. Perhaps there will be less dues needed from everyone else.

I don't have a Breitling, but if someone wants to spend their money for one, not a problem for me. I do have a mechanical analog watch by Ball that I really enjoy. However, in my airplane, I chose to go digital flat panel instead of analog. I realize that might be inconsistent.
 
I really like my $26 timex with the button that lights up the dial and hands instead of digital numbers that disappear because the display is polarized.
 
dnhill said:
Have they recently sold? My understanding is it is the same company since the 1880's.
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The company was disbanded in 1978, and the Breitling name was acquired by another corp. The current Breitling has no relationship to the previous company other than the name.
 
timwinters said:
... AOPA's latest "cranial rectitus ...
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The greed is amazing! Two unneeded dues increases, $70M in the bank, and they're still clawing for dough. It must be some kind of mental illness.
 
Glad to see their marketing plan is doing well. Wish them all the success in the world for overpriced gewgaws.

Sadly, they bill themselves as an advocate for GA. In that function, they are miserably deficient. Adding to that, they are displacing what could be a true GA advocate by staying in business and mucking things up so badly. To whit; the ADS-B crap coming.
 
Anthony said:
The company was disbanded in 1978, and the Breitling name was acquired by another corp. The current Breitling has no relationship to the previous company other than the name.
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Breitling
Breitling has weathered numerous crises in the course of its long history, but if not for the intervention of the Schneider family in 1979, this traditional company, which was founded in 1884, might have become a casualty of the quartz crisis like so many of its competitors. The brand, which celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2009, would not have even reached its 100th. A look in the pages of L’Information Horlogère Suisse, a newsletter for the Swiss watch industry, reveals that Breitling had completely suspended operations in 1978 after laying off 24 workers, 18 in La Chaux-de-Fonds and six in Geneva. The reasons are understandable, considering the turbulence of the era and the serious illness of the firm’s leader, Willy Breitling. Breitling sold the firm to Ernest Schneider, proprietor of the Sicura watch firm. In April 1979, the two men signed an agreement that allowed Schneider to take over the well-known names “Breitling” and “Navitimer.” Willy Breitling died just one month later, ending one era of Breitling watches and beginning another. The firm is now operated by Schneider's son.
 
I think its a nice looking watch. However, since I have a handy dandy cell phone that tells time, I cant justify the expense.
 
It is jewelry, no doubt. I still want one, but will never pay anywhere near that for one...

I currently wear a Breitling B-1 and love it...great functionality and still has a nice look. I love the Navitimer just for the look and heritage and really want one, but it is so far down the priority purchase list I can't even see it.
 
Who needs a watch these days? A cell phone in everyone's pocket has it covered!
 
Todd Copeland said:
Who needs a watch these days? A cell phone in everyone's pocket has it covered!
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And the clock on the dash of the car...

and the two in the airplane...

and the three in the kitchen...(frig, coffee pot, microwave)

and the one in the bedroom...

and the two in the living room...

and the three in the barn/shop...

and...

and...

and...

Time, time, everywhere the time,
blocking out the scenery breaking my mind,
do this...don't do that...can't you read the time...

(okay, so that's not quite the way it went!) :goofy:
 
I wear one because it's convenient. Flick of the wrist and I have the time, no pocket digging.

Same $20 Casio I've had for the past 5 years.
 
But they are the only GA advocate selling branded Breitling watches we have to support them...
 
NO WAY I would spend good money to have AOPA plastered on it.
 
Gucci Pilot said:
NO WAY I would spend good money to have AOPA plastered on it.
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I dunno, think of it as a bonus 'anti-theft' feature...like "Narco" or "Microair" on your radios :rolleyes:

Nauga,
and his $30 Timex wit' da fancy velcro band.:D
 
If I had extra money, I'd buy B&R BR0351-GMT-CB. Just the right features for me. However, at $3500 it's more than the value it delivers.
 
Jay Honeck said:
Exactly. My watch left my wrist the moment I had a cell phone that displayed time.
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I wish I could say it were the dumbest statement that I ever heard, but actually, considering that we continue to fly single-engine piston airplanes in IFR conditions, it actually seems completely reasonable to use one's least reliable electronic gadget as the sole timing source. I mean who ever needs to know how much fuel he's got left, right? A real pilot should be planning for winds aloft and never even look at the watch... er. cellphone. Which is dead because its battery is dead.
 
Am I the only one who charges their tablets/phones/etc before departing?
 
timwinters said:
Time, time, everywhere the time,
blocking out the scenery breaking my mind,
do this...don't do that...can't you read the time...
Click to expand...

Does anybody really know what time it is?
Does anybody really care?
 
I bought a Breitling about 20 some years ago. Plain and simple, no fancy nothing on it. I love it.
 
zaitcev said:
I wish I could say it were the dumbest statement that I ever heard, but actually, considering that we continue to fly single-engine piston airplanes in IFR conditions, it actually seems completely reasonable to use one's least reliable electronic gadget as the sole timing source. I mean who ever needs to know how much fuel he's got left, right? A real pilot should be planning for winds aloft and never even look at the watch... er. cellphone. Which is dead because its battery is dead.
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Heh. Now THAT is funny!

I've got a chronometer in the panel that we use for fuel tank changes.

I've got another chronometer in my EFIS. And a fuel totalizer, BTW.

And I've got three USB ports in my RV, to keep my cellular devices juiced up. I don't think my time keeping is under threat... :)
 
I stopped wearing a watch a couple years ago. Had a Timex ironman I spent more money on bands on over the years by far than the watch cost. I have a lower end Rolex sitting on the dresser that was my dad's probably need to get to selling that one of these days.

Hobbes meter can tell me how long I have been in the air if my phone craps out on me.
 
DFH65 said:
Hobbes meter can tell me how long I have been in the air if my phone craps out on me.
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Hell, if my phone craps out on me then I have my iPad.

If my iPad craps out then I have my 496.

If my 496 craps out then I have the Wakmann 8 day wind up.

If the Wakmann craps out, then I have the GNC-300XL

If it craps out then I have the Westbend kitchen timer/clock.

And, of course, as a last resort, there's Calvin...or Hobbs...one of the two!

And, thus far, none have crapped out so I think I'm adequately backed up. :goofy:
 
My Tiffany is a nice watch, and even when I wear it I look at my phone. AOPA can stick its Breitling where it's metaphorical sun metaphorically doesn't shine.
 
steingar said:
AOPA can stick its Breitling where it's metaphorical sun metaphorically doesn't shine.
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I can't be the only one that thought of Capt Koons:

PulpFiction_100Pyxurz.jpg


Nauga,
who says, "What?" one more time
 
I got a brand new Breitling with a really cool logo on the dial for an 80% discount a few years ago, because they (Breitling) wanted to take pictures of that really cool logo on actual planes (that I flew) and perhaps use them in marketing.

After the second $300 'service' to the watch in four years, that 80% discount did not seem like enough of a discount. It is now a nice piece of broken bling in my bathroom drawer, with a really cool logo on the dial. Maybe someday I'll give it to my son, who shares my initials, which are on the back.

Bare wrists these days, now that I don't have to start a flight briefing with a time hack. Instead, I start each brief with a TFR check, on my cellphone, that also tells time (how's that for a change in priorities :mad2:).
 
Last edited:
timwinters said:
...a couple of hilarious threads are running over on Red regarding AOPA's latest "cranial rectitus" marketing strategy.

A special edition AOPA 75th anniversary Breitling watch with AOPA's logo plastered on it and it's only $1,500 more than a Breitling without all the extra crap.

Thank God I've successfully blocked all of AOPA's marketing spam.
Click to expand...

Does it come with a case of wine?
 
catmandu said:
I got a brand new Breitling with a really cool logo on the dial for an 80% discount a few years ago, because they (Breitling) wanted to take pictures of that really cool logo on actual planes (that I flew) and perhaps use them in marketing.

After the second $300 'service' to the watch in four years, that 80% discount did not seem like enough of a discount. It is now a nice piece of broken bling in my bathroom drawer, with a really cool logo on the dial. Maybe someday I'll give it to my son, who shares my initials, which are on the back.

Bare wrists these days, now that I don't have to start a flight briefing with a time hack. Instead, I start each brief with a TFR check, on my cellphone, that also tells time (how's that for a change in priorities :mad2:).
Click to expand...

Our squadron did a group buy (that consisted of a lot of other cats and dogs from Oceana too), which produced some good watches for about 1/2 price. While I couldn't justify $3200 for a wrist piece at the time, I do kind of wish I had sucked it up as they looked real good when it was all said and done. Then again, I probably ended up doing something more useful with that money so I don't really care. I have sported a carbon black Citizen Nighthawk since flight school, which was a mere $500 and has been in the cockpit with me ever since, sweat and saltwater, in the ocean, drunk swimming in all kinds of international pools, banging into the canopy rails, and it still looks just fine and works as advertised.....though the analog pilot calculator dial no longer spins, but who uses that......I don't think I've ever actually looked at the thing in the jet anyway

3-2-1 hack......mission objective today is.....
 
I've got a citizen Skyhawk blue angels edition. Got it a few years ago before even entertaining the thought of flying. After starting ground school I actually realized what I had. Time updates via radio every night, has a separate zulu clock, e6b.
 
48dodge said:
I've got a citizen Skyhawk blue angels edition. Got it a few years ago before even entertaining the thought of flying. After starting ground school I actually realized what I had. Time updates via radio every night, has a separate zulu clock, e6b.
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My wife gave me that watch for Christmas 6 years ago. I love the feature that allows changing time zones. With the travel I do it is quite handy. And the WWVB/Japanese/German stations keep it quite accurate. I use it to set the other clocks in the house.

Oh, and I was already flying when she got it for me. Nice watch.
 
48dodge said:
I've got a citizen Skyhawk blue angels edition. Got it a few years ago before even entertaining the thought of flying. After starting ground school I actually realized what I had. Time updates via radio every night, has a separate zulu clock, e6b.
Click to expand...

Damn, now I gotta go find a retailer. That is one good looking time piece, and seems to have plenty of calibrations on it. Wondering how useful it all is? Guess I would read the book. lol
 
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