Big, flashy, and branded are obnoxious; clean, authentic and honest are the new standards for luxury.

Especially in this age of the deepest recession since the second world war, a little bit of austerity is a must. (finally! I was getting sick of the logos and flashy brand grafitti that could inflate the value of a t-shirt several hundred times…) However it doesn’t mean that we have to go without; it means that the choice of what we buy should be more focused on quality and authenticity rather than the the inflated credibility imbued by the brand.

Here’s something cool and fits the bill:

Completely logoless and free of markings, the Stowa Flieger is a hommage watch by one of the original manufacturers of the legendary Beobachtungs Uhren (aka B-Uhr), meaning observation watch in German.

A little History

At the outbreak of WWII, the German government comissioned A. Lange & Sohne to produce watches for pilots in the war effort. Unable to produce them fast enough, these commissions were eventually also given to 4 other firms: Laco, Stowa, Wempe, and International Watch Company (IWC). They were built to very high standards and had anti-magnetic cases and complied to chronometer specifications of the period. These watches were gigantic, at 55mm diameter and designed to be worn on the outside of the pilot’s leather bomber jacket strapped on by a riveted buffalo leather strap. The triangle on the dial helped orient the watch at night, and the long central seconds hand allowed precision timekeeping - as coordination was important in flight missions. A large onion or diamond shaped crown made it easy to wind while wearing gloves (cockpits were cold and draghty places back then). These vintage B-Uhr watches, especially from A. Lange & Sohne and IWC are highly collectible today and regularly trade from $25,000-35,000 USD.

A vintage B-Uhr at 55mm and a modern hommage

The modern stowa recreation uses modern movements, the flieger automatic (40mm) uses an ETA 2824-2 movement and the flieger original (42mm) uses a modified and embellished Unitas 6497. The ETA movement is the same used in many mid-end watches, including Breitling, Omega, and Cartier; although finished in varying levels of quality. The Unitas 6497, developed in the ’50s as a pocketwatch movement has been found in Panerai’s watches.

Stowa has finished its flieger original to a fairly high level of finish, considering its price. A swan neck regulator, blued screws, and Cote de Geneve are hallmarks of fine watches and rarely found at this price range.