Pilot Watch Original
Model History
The Pilot Watch Original is the collection with which Laco most directly claims its historical heritage: these are watches designed to reproduce, in proportion and graphic language, the Beobachtungsuhren made in the 1940s for Luftwaffe navigators. The brand describes these observation watches as "indispensable onboard companions," instruments on which reading precision was not an aesthetic detail but an operational necessity.
In keeping with the military standards of the time, the collection offers the two historical alternative dials: type A, with a large hour ring numbered from 1 to 11 and a triangle in place of the 12, and type B, with large minute numerals at 5-minute intervals along the outer edge and the hour numbers in Arabic numerals closer to the center. Completing the set is the characteristic "onion" crown, originally designed to be operated even while wearing flight gloves, and a strongly domed sapphire crystal meant to keep proportions as faithful as possible to the originals.
Within the line, executions coexist that move progressively closer to historical reconstruction: from the more compact 39 and 42 mm sizes, designed for contemporary everyday use, up to the 45 mm and the declared 55 mm replicas that echo the bulky dimensions of the original Beobachtungsuhren, when the large diameter served to guarantee maximum legibility during flight.
Technical Specifications
Main Executions
The oversized "onion" crown of the original Beobachtungsuhren was not an aesthetic flourish: it allowed navigators to adjust the watch even while wearing the heavy flight gloves used aboard Luftwaffe aircraft, at a time when the cockpit offered none of the comfort of a modern cabin.