This month, I’ll be on 12 flights across four cities, two continents and nearly three weeks away from home, so – yeah – I’ve been thinking a lot about planes lately. Perhaps, quite coincidentally, Farer has been, too, with the launch of their new Pilot Collection Series II, with three new models debuting.
The collection has been redesigned around a 40mm Grade 2 titanium case, with a bead-blasted finish and a brushed bezel with a coin-edge profile. Across the line, Farer keeps the focus on legibility and performance, using large markers, broad minute tracks and lozenge-shaped hands applied with Grade X2 Super-LumiNova.
Powering each watch is the Sellita SW300-1 Elaboré automatic movement, offering a 56-hour power reserve. Since cockpits can be highly magnetic environments, Farer has protected the movement with an internal soft iron Faraday cage, giving the watches anti-magnetic resistance up to 500 Gauss – these are the little details of Farer that go beyond just theming a watch and making it functional and operational to those that inspired the collection.
The Curtis, named for English aviator and flight test engineer Eleanor Lettice Curtis, uses a blue-grey guilloché dial divided into twelve slightly concave sections, catching the light in a way reminiscent, as Farer notes, to the motion of a propeller. It has applied Lumicast markers, pale yellow lume and orange accents, with an additional Curtis Eastern Arabic edition limited to 100 pieces.
The Barnwell is named for brothers Frank and Harold Barnwell, who built the first successful powered aircraft made in Scotland in 1909. This model takes on a Type B pilot watch layout, with a large outer minute track and smaller inner hour scale. Its bronze-colored dial is divided into sloped segments inspired by jet engine fan blades, with sky blue and fluorescent orange details worked into the design.
The Hewlett takes its name from Hilda Beatrice Hewlett, the first British woman to earn a pilot’s license. It has an ink-blue dial with an engraved crosshair, oversized Lumicast numerals and a fully lumed raised minute track. Yellow-filled lozenge hands and a red Farer “A” seconds hand bring in some color while keeping the watch close to a flight-instrument format.
The Farer Pilot Collection Series II is available now via Farer’s website, with each model in the collection priced at $1,525. Farer
