Blancpain brings back its rare Pilot’s Chrono watch — the Air Command Flyback Chronograph — with modern aesthetics and technical innovation.
When it comes to the many offerings from Blancpain, we are well aware of its diving icons like the Fifty Fathoms and its complicated high-end watches from the Villeret collection. But not many are aware of their Pilot’s watches. Not until 2019 when the Swiss watchmaker launched a re-edition of its 1950s Air Command timepiece developed in tiny quantities.
Following the success of the 2019 edition, Blancpain unveils its 2021 Air Command collection in two models: 18K red gold and grade 23 titanium. These models offer two distinct timing modes — chronograph with a flyback function and a countdown bezel. The former is a valuable element for pilots. It allows the wearer to reset the current timing operation and start a new one with just a single press while the chronograph is running. The countdown bezel, on the other hand, showcases the time remaining until one reaches the destination. Apart from these functions, the watch also features a tachymeter scale that indicates ground speeds, a 30-minute counter with three elongated markers marking three-minute increments and a 12-hour counter.
While the new models retain the shape and structure of the earlier edition with its 42.5 mm case that alternates between brushed and polished surfaces, the use of the colour blue this time around adds a touch of modernity to the vintage-looking watch. Add a glossy blue ceramic bezel that works beautifully against the blue sunburst dial and snailed chronograph counters, and you have got yourself the perfect sports watch. Further intensifying the emotions procured by a timepiece of this nature, Blancpain has equipped both sides of its Air Command model with a “glass box” sapphire crystal, a solid aesthetic element of the 1950s models.
The Blancpain Air Command Flyback Chronograph features the Manufacture F388B movement distinguished by a free-sprung silicon balance oscillating at a frequency of 5 Hz.
