As a former pilot, there are two watches that represent the absolute finest gear for flying: the Omega X-33, and Breitling Aerospace. Both are quartz and analog/digital, and have very different looks. Today's post is about a very similar watch that has a much more reasonable price tag to the Aerospace, the Victorinox Swiss Army Classic XLS MT. I've not yet confirmed this, but I strongly suspect that it has the exact same movement as the Aerospace, the ETA 988.432, making it one heck of a deal. Specifications of the Victorinox are:

• Swiss made, Swiss quartz movement.
• Anti-reflective-coated sapphire crystal.
• Stainless steel case, PVD-coated 'gunmetal'.
• Luminous hands and hour markers.
• Crown guard.
• Countdown timer, alarm clock, stopwatch, dual time zone, multiple languages.
• Water resistant to 100m.
• 45mm by 12m, quite large.

List price is shown as $1,095USD, but I would expect a discount from that. Let's compare to the Breitling Aerospace:

I haven't been a fan of Swiss Army watches since I paid $100 for an original Swiss Army watch back in high school, wore it on the construction site where I was working, and had it quit on me after filling up with sawdust after only a week. It's been a long time since I earned beer money as a laborer, however, and John over at The Wrist Watch Review has recently posted twice about Swiss Army watches being good values, so I've decided to give them another look. They have some interesting chronographs and divers which I'm now intrigued by, but what really caught my eye was the Night Vision line. The Swiss Army Night Vision watches are simple, inexpensive, decent looking quartz pieces with date windows and built-in LED flashlights above the 12 o'clock position. The flashlight is powered by a second battery, and activated by a button on the left side of the case, between the 8 and 9 o'clock positions. There is also an LED dial light to illuminate the dial in the dark, and just in case the flashlight's battery is dead, luminous hands, as well.

Flashlights built into watches are surprisingly useful. I wrote about the MTM Special Ops Watch some time ago which has LEDs so bright that you are warned not to look directly into them (they are meant to be used for reading maps at night). I also often use the two LEDs in the dial of my Casio G-Shock GW-1310 (my all time favorite G-Shock) to navigate my bedroom late at night after getting up with one of my kids. In fact, I've been known to trip over laundry baskets on nights when I've been wearing digital watches with electroluminescent backlights, or mechanical watches with nothing but a little luminescent paint. Of course, LEDs bright enough to light your path through your bedroom in the dark are a little overkill for illuminating your watch dial, so squinting into them while half asleep can be a rude awakening if you are not prepared. Consider yourself warned.

The Swiss Army ST 5000 is one of the most sophisticated and unique digital compass watches I've seen. First of all, there's a small LCD above the 6 o'clock position which displays the user's numeric heading (I have a Casio ProTrek with a digital compass that displays your heading, but my Tissot T-Touch does not). It will also display magnetic north in addition to the wearer's bearing, and allow you to lock that bearing into memory in order to keep you on track. There is a 5-point LED system which will indicate any necessary course corrections, and since it uses LEDs (light-emitting diodes) rather than LCDs, you can use the system to navigate in the dark. The watch has a rotating inner bezel which is divided up into 360 degrees in 15 degree increments, and there's even a built in spirit level (a little bubble encased in liquid) to help you keep the watch level in order to optimize precision.