Messages: 6296 Location: USA
Registered: March 2009
A Watch With a History....
Wed, 16 January 2013 14:53
Watches just seem more interesting when their life history is known....
I have a friend, a former fighter pilot, who still actively flies corporate aircraft and his own very special planes. When he's in town, we meet at the local IHOP for breakfast. He knows I'm a watch enthusiast. So imagine my surprise when he presented me with his original 1966 Omega Chronostop. An outright gift. I'm honored to possess it. Priceless.
In 1966, he bought it for $65 when first assigned to Germany, flying the F-4 Phantom II fighter aircraft at Bitburg Air Base. He purchased the watch at a nearby Canadian Post Exchange on Zweibrucken Air Base.
I966 was first year of production for the Chronostop. The watch served as his primary flying timepiece for his full 4-year tour in then Cold War Europe. He wore it while flying hundreds of operational missions in all weather conditions. When in Vietnam after Germany, he acquired a Rolex GMT-Master Pepsi in Hong Kong (on R&R) that he still wears today when he flies.
But the Chronostop was not relegated to the sock drawer, but rather to the Earth's surface--and its intended purpose. He continued to wear it--driving his 1965 Corvette convertible. For many years. His Chronostop model was the "Driver" (with the 865 movement, the "no date" model). It was designed to be worn with the dial on the underside of one's wrist. The time is read by merely glancing at the watch while holding the steering wheel, because the 12 o'clock index of the dial was permanently installed at the 3 o'clock position. This German ad from the late 1960s show several models, straps, and bracelets:
This particular watch, went on to survive 16 military moves including assignments to Germany, Vietnam, the Philippines, Kentucky, Nevada, California, South Carolina, and Georgia--where the original owner lives today. Of course, the box and papers are long gone and the original leather strap is also history. He had the watch serviced just once, in 2011, and it keeps very precise time today.
I put it on a Rallye strap with stitching that matches the Omega Logo and the stopwatch seconds hand (which I use as a regular seconds hand because I like to see the kinetic motion). At 36mm, with a cushion case, a plain solid caseback, and an odd one-button 1-minute stopwatch feature, it was a fairly limited timepiece even in its day. Still, Omega sold 124,000 of them.
Here it is--a 47 year old Omega Chronostop Driver. Well-travelled,like many of our watches. Plus it's been supersonic past Mach 2 more times than we will ever know ☺
- Walter Kross