I want to get an E6B Watch.

There are so many to choose from, and most of the online sites have a less than detailed description. Can you provide any advice or guidance? Either on particular models, or brands in general?

In particular, I think I want:

GMT/Dual Timezone
Metal Band (not leather or rubber)
Good night viewing (either luminescent or a decent light)
Clear, big, precise E6B
(along with lots of implied features, like stopwatch, count-down timer, alarm, water-resistant, etc)

General price range: $200-$700

You're probably not going to like my reply, as it's over 5 or 6x your price range...but I'd go with a Breitling Navitimer. They have several different models of Navitimers. You'll be blinging out of control, it will be ridiculous. Hey, as Snoop Dogg says....You gotta pay da cost to be da boss.

Stay away from Breitling. Speaking from personal experience they are very nice, I love it, cost a fortune to even get a battery changed.

Citizen Eco-drive hands down. The AT version is sweet, keeps a GPS time hack. I've had three of them. Still have the first, it's 11 years old, and it's never had less than a full charge on the battery meter.

Breitling's are amazing watches, I'm not sure which model you had..must have been the Colt. All Navitimers are automatic...so there is no battery. I've had my Breitling Chronomat Automatic going on 10 years now, never had to have it serviced once and it keeps better time than my dad's Rolex President Day/Date.

However, for his price range, the Citizen is a nice watch.

Yeah, I think you'll be hard pressed to find even a used Aerospace on ebay for less than $1500, and that's not an E6B watch.

I've got an Emergency. Battery replacement was $300, and they cleaned it up too. You can't beat a watch with a saphire crystal. The only reason I replaced my first Citizen was that after 10 years the crystal was so scratched up you could barely see through it, although I'm pretty hard on my stuff. That thing is a tank though.

To the OP, here's a fantastic price for the stainless AT. Best aviators watch for the money IMO.
http://www.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6.aspx?...Atomic%20Watch

OP - do you plan on actually using the E6B functions of the watch, or is just for looking cool? No knock either way - just giving you my opinion.

After my PPL, I never touched an E6B again. DUATS (or other flight planning software) and on board GPS kinda made the E6B a relic.

I have an AOPA and a National Geographic Aviator watch for social events and an Ironman Timex ($40) for flight ops (3 time zones, alarm, timer, chronograph) that I can actually read with my 45+ year old eyes.

Let us know what you decide and where/how you use it. Good luck on the PPL.

73M

I have this one, but I never wear (I don't wear any watch, except for special events). I like it.

CITIZEN PROMASTER Blue Angels JN0040-58L - Watches88.com

Buy the Citizen, wear it for a year, and then do what the rest of us do and buy a lighter cheaper watch to wear.

I wear a $ 25 Timex. I have a old fat E6B I use once in a while for Litre to Gallons and adding time.
If I wasn't so lazy I would use a $ 4.99 calculater and a pad of paper.

I do plan on using the E6B... but who knows how well that will actually work out? I have a Garmin GPSMAP 196 on board, but I don't like the digital E6B on it, with the limited inputs. I learned E6B in my PPL, and hope to stick with it.

I'm getting this watch as a present to myself, as I finished my PPL last week.