It’s been a while since I’ve written about a World Time/GMT watch on the blog, so here is one from Glycine, an Airman 2000.
(Click pictures to enlarge)
The Airman is without doubt the most widely recognised model that Glycine have ever produced. It was first introduced in 1953, and has been part of their line-up ever since. Aimed at pilots and travellers, the Airman had a 24 hr dial (the hour hand only makes one trip around the dial per day rather than two) and a rotating bezel which allowed the wearer to track the time in a second time zone.
The original Airman was produced from 1953 to 1978 and needless to say, the early models are now highly collectible. The earliest versions were fitted with a Felsa cal. 692N and at some time during the 1960’s the calibre was switched to a A.Schild cal. 1700/1701.
The watch in this post, the Airman 2000, was introduced in 1998 and differs from the traditional Airman style in that rather than having a 24hr movement like the original Airman, this model is fitted with an ETA cal. 2983-2 which has a traditional hand arrangement; the hour hand circles the dial twice per day.
An orange ’24hr’ hand has been added which rotates just once per day allowing the second time zone to be tracked, (this hand can be moved independently of the hour/minute hands via the crown and so can be set to any hour of the wearers choosing), and just like the original Airman, the bezel also rotates so it can be used to track a third time zone.
As you can see in the first picture, the watch had seen better days; the paint from the numbers on the bezel had been scratched out and some of the lume from the hands was missing. According to the owner, it had probably never been serviced, so it was more than ready for a complete overhaul.
The first thing to do was to repaint the numbers on the bezel and when dry, coat them with a thin layer of clear lacquer.
After the movement had been serviced, attention was given to the missing lume from the hands. Rather than trying to fill in the holes, it is much better to remove all the existing lume from the hands and relume them. That way there is no chance of a ‘patchy’ look on the final finish and an uneven glow when charged.
Here is the watch all back together again.
Rich.
** Many thanks to Marc Vos for letting me feature his watch on the blog. **
Love those! They’re classics