Pilots Dressed in Gray: Tutima Launches Flieger with Slate Gray Dial

Glashütte, Germany-based Tutima has found success in adapting the vintage-look aesthetics of its military pilots' watches into modern dress watches that are both contemporary in style and attractive in price. The latest example can be found in the new Tutima Flieger models, whose gradient slate-gray dials and tone-on-tone Horween leather strap make for a monochromatic timepiece that seamlessly ushers classical cockpit style into a boardroom or cocktail soirée setting.

The watch's stainless steel case is a contemporary 41 mm in diameter, with an antireflective-treated sapphire crystal and a a threaded, tightly set crown. Under the crystal is the degradé-effect dial, which radiates elegantly from light gray in the center to nearly black at the edges. The classical, military-evocative numerals and indices are treated with Super-LumiNova and accompanied at 12 o'clock by the triangle with two dots that is a historical emblem of pilots' watches ("Flieger" is German for "flyer" or "pilot," and the modern Flieger watch family is descended from timepieces that Tutima has made for military pilots since the 1940s.) Also luminous-coated are the sharply tapered, diamond-shaped hands, which display the hour and minute while the orange-colored central seconds hand adds a splash of contrasting bright color as it sweeps over the gray dial. The date peeks out unobtrusively from a small rectangular window at 6 o'clock.

Behind a pane of transparent sapphire in the steel caseback is the watch's self-winding mechanical movement, which Tutima dubs Caliber 330. Based on the Swiss-made ETA Valjoux 2836, it's been upgraded with a Tutima-made rotor, featuring a gold seal bearing the Saxon brand's "T" logo, and presumably offering all of the base movement's attributes, including a 28,800-vph frequency, bidirectional winding, an Etachron regulator and Nivarox hairspring, and a 42-hour power reserve. In addition to the soft yet robust Horween leather strap, whose elephant-hide color is highlighted with black stitched edges, the watch is offered on a stainless steel three-link bracelet (below) that integrates attractively into the case lugs.

Positioned both as an entry-level timepiece and a simpler, more contemporary, three-handed extension of the larger and more retro-designed Grand Flieger series, the Flieger with slate gray dial is priced at a very reasonable $1,650 on the strap (Ref. 6105-31) and $1,990 on the bracelet (Ref. 6105-32).