Hello from the UK.
Came across this forum while looking for somewhere to sell my near mint Intruder which I bought on 25 July 1998 (I still have all the paperwork, and the bakelite box!) while running the ground ops frequency at International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford. But having seen how much you guys love your Breitlings I'm having second thoughts!
My first watch was a manual Lemania pilots chrono (Fleet Air Arm issue) which I was given while still at school and aviation mad in the 70's 'not the watch for a schoolboy' was one watchmaker's comment. I gave it pretty rough treatment for 10 years
and it packed in about 1982, but I kept it in a draw while I had a horrible selection of cheap watches.
Then in 1989 with my first ever redundancy payment (yes, but this was the 80's) I bought a Rolex Oysterdate Precision 6694 - a lovely watch, still going strong; which now costs about twice as much to service as what I paid for it!
In 1994 I won a Sir Douglas Bader Flying Scholarship for Disabled People - got the Lemania out of it's draw and sent it off to Switzerland to be repaired. I used it to time my first solo flight out of Peachtree DeKalb PDK in Georgia.
Hooked by the aviation bug again I bought a more reliable Seiko Quartz pilots chrono - almost identical to the standard MOD issue pilot's chrono of the 90's.
In 1998 I was still flying for pleasure and earning good money, by now I'd been volunteering at IAT for nearly 10 years and running the ground ops frequency during the show (radio comms with a/c still on the ground). Decided I needed a suitable chrono and got the watch dealer to come onto the showground and up to the comms centre where I bought the Intruder (he practically wet himself and gave me a £50 discount he was so excited, so I kept him away from the control tower!).
Anyway, I only wore it flying for a year or two - it's seen some stuff: a spiral dive in a Shadow Microlight because my instructor told me it wouldn't spin
a beat up of their barbecue
and a lovely filmed sequence over the country around Stonehenge near sunset.
Got a house, dog, girlfriend in 2000, stopped flying and put the Intruder in a draw with the others(!). These days I wear the Rolex for work (when I can get it) and bought myself a CWC quartz MOD army issue watch for everyday wear. Thinking about it I wish I'd bought the Colt Auto at the time for almost the same price.
PS - will post pics later
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