The New Stowa Flieger Original, a Faithful Recreation of the Historic Pilot’s Watch

Stowa is, without a doubt, one of the most legitimate brands when it comes to Flieger watches. Founded by Walter Storz in 1927 and currently headquartered in Pforzheim, Germany, it is now part of the Tempus Arte group, which also owns Lang & Heyne. But importantly, Stowa was one of only five manufacturers allowed to construct so-called B-Uhren, or Beobachtungsuhren, along with A. Lange & Söhne, Laco, Wempe and IWC. As such, it’s only normal that the brand continues this tradition and currently offers a wide range of pilot watches. But today, with its latest launch, the Stowa Flieger Original, the brand might well be releasing one of its most authentic re-editions. 

With close to a century of watchmaking history and as one of the original five brands to build B-uhr watches, it’s only natural that the collection still lives on in Stowa’s arsenal today. The brand offers it in many styles and materials, but the clear-cut design of the original is always respected. And this new Stowa Flieger Original keeps things very, well, original!

The historical B-Uhr pilot’s watches came in oversized cases to be worn over a flight jacket in the early days of aviation. That has been sized down over time as the need for such watches dwindled, but pilot’s watches today are still considered to need a good size to work best. As such, for its new Flieger Original, Stowa has opted for a 42mm wide by 13.5mm tall stainless steel case. To adhere to its tool-like roots, the case has been bead-blasted to an extra-matte finish. On top and the back, a sapphire crystal keeps things protected from outside threats, and the flat onion-style crown can be used to easily wind and set the watch. The “FI 23883” on the left side of the case is optional, even though historically relevant.

The aviation legacy continues with a matte black dial in the typical B-Uhr Type A design. That means a printed minutes track on the outer edge of the dial, large and easily read hour numerals, the signature triangle over double dots at noon, and sword-shaped hands. To liven it up just a little, these are heat-blued and finished with Super-LumiNova. As are the hour markers, by the way. And to keep things classic and authentic, there’s no signature or date on the dial.

Traditionally, B-uhr watches were fitted with large hand-wound movements. Stowa used the Unitas calibre 2812 back in the day, for instance. To comply with modern standards, however, the Flieger Original used an in-house modified Unitas 6498-1 movement, converted to central seconds. The modifications include a new gear to reroute the seconds indication to the centre, as well as a new bridge. It also means that the movement gets an extra jewel, so it now has 18 instead of 17. Although it sounds easy on paper, the conversion requires Stowa to drill through the minutes wheel and quarter tube to add the seconds staff, which is a very delicate operation. One of the benefits of the large size of the Unitas 6498-1 movement is that you have plenty of real estate for finishing. The result here is pretty impressive as we have radiant brushed stripes, heat-blued screws, chamfered edges on the bridges and crips engravings.

This old-school and large hand-wound movement fills the case almost entirely, something that’s always very pleasant. It runs at a slow pace of 2.5Hz (18,000 vibrations/hour) and stores up to 46 hours of power reserve on a single barrel. It also features a stop-seconds mechanism for precise time setting.

The Stowa Flieger Original is offered in three different versions: two with leather straps and one with a steel bracelet. The most classical ones are the riveted leather straps in brown or black, in the spirit of the early B-Uhr watches. But if you prefer something a bit less pure, you can also have it on a steel Milanaise bracelet. On the wrist, the Flieger Original has the presence you’d expect from such a watch but without being oversized or uncomfortable. The 52.3mm lug-to-lug means that it requires some space but it is far more wearable than the old watches.

The price for this new Stowa Flieger Original is EUR 2,990, which is on the higher side for the brand, but there’s been some extensive work done on the movement (layout and finishing), resulting in a very appealing package that honours the historically significant B-Uhr watches. For more details, please visit www.stowa.de.