AeroWatch, Neuchatel, Switzerland

AeroWatch Unitas 6498, water resistant, ca. 2001
Front	Top Side	Back	Opened	Compared to Chinese 6498	At Night	At the airport	Home made "chain"	How to wear
See more pictures in the series "Sunflowers and Reflections"

My only water resistant Pocketwatch and
it is in use. The watch below was purportedly designed for Finnish wood cutters according to my friend's friend in Switzerland who sells these watches in Basel. Wood cutters obviously do not wear or are not supposed to wear watches because of the vibration and the risks involved handling those huge chain saws. I do not know whether this is true or not, but the fact is, that the watch is screwed (symmetrical case design top and bottom) and has no real case back slots for an opener to grip. And I thought this is the perfect watch for the really ugly climate here. It is a subtropical climate which would be bearable, but it is also a very dirty air floating around here in Bangkok that one better keeps out of watches.
I had the watch sent back to the factory because the luminous paint of both the hour and minute hands cracked and was about to break out as soon as the watch would get some knock which is always possible on boys nights out. I was worried that bits of luminous paint dropping to the dial would quickly start to stain the beautiful black matte paint. And that would have meant redialing the watch. I got a brand new watch back. I am not 100% sure whether my friend's friend simply exchanged the watch but I could not find any signs on wear on the returned watch. Cool customer service indeed! If they did not exchange the watch, then they must have had a master polisher working on this case.
I then decided to keep the watch in its "virgin" state and when my daughter was in the "beads" age, I found a chance to sit with her and make a chain for myself. Thus I have this nice black and white home made "chain" to wear with the watch now. The design is more sophisticated then it might seem. The big loop at the top allows the watch to be thread through if the watch is hooked on belt loops at the trousers. And if you wear it on a belt like on the last picture, then simply make a loop and thread the belt through it. Like this, the watch hangs high in the pocket, above key rings, knives and the advantage is, it is hanging freely in the pocket and I do not have to pull it out of the coin pocket. Because as you certainly know, any rough cotton clothing will also leave hairlines, even in stainless steel. It is quite unbelievable how easy it is to see under the 40 times stereoscope if a watch is really brand new or if somebody wore it for a couple of times. Also, never hand a 18 K gold watch to an elder person to wind it. Older people - I know that from personal experience LOL! - have drier skin and if you wind a 18K gold watch, the dry skin of your thumb and index will "cut" hairlines around the crown. I found this when looking at so called brand new gold watches during Easter 2004. Please see the Bucherer Table if you want to see what joined my collection during that trip.