Looking for an affordable chrono / slide-rule (E6B)

[TickTockMan]

After you pass the next mile marker post, note the seconds. Now put that number under the "60" index located on the outer ring, and your MPH will be over the "60" that will be located on the inner ring.

If you can't do this while driving, the watch is not a truly practical "pilot watch" IMHO.

Hey! Cool! I was wondering how to do that without the tachymeter scale.

[TickTockMan]

I just found a new winner, although it's currently over my budget: Sea-Gull 413.361 Slide Rule Pilot Titanium Chronograph

It's 42mm, sapphire crystal front and back, 100m water resistance, mechanical movement. Wow. Better pictures in this ad. There's also a white-dial version.

[pantagruel]

How does the line-up of the Orient's slide-rule compare to your other watches? Your profile includes the Citizen Skyhawk A-T. Really neat watch, although it feels too busy for my taste.

The inner and outer rings of the Dyno's slide rule line up reasonably well. No better or worse than my Skyhawk. However, I do agree with Dark30 that it is easier to use the Skyhawk's slide rule when compared to the Dyno's. Manipulating the outer ring by hand on the Skyhawk is much easier than manipulating it with the 10-o'clock knob on the Dyno.

[CFI care]

Hi TickTockMan,I have found with the various watches that I have owned is that the E6B with the dial(s) inside the glass is all but impossible to read.
I chose (after many months of research) the Seiko SBDM007, most probably a tad over budget but for me the price was soon forgotten when using the watch on a daily basis. choose a dial where the inner and the outer ring are outside the glass, The citizen make a nice enough watch with an easy enough to read E6B but it does not have the major marking at the 60 in highlight. (timing events is difficult)

[PullTheTrigger]

Let me suggest the seiko ssc007. A fantastic watch for around 280.00

[pantagruel]

Let me suggest the seiko ssc007. A fantastic watch for around 280.00

Good suggestion... It's a Seiko solar.

[TickTockMan]

Let me suggest the seiko ssc007. A fantastic watch for around 280.00

Neat suggestion. Yeah, that one caught my eye. The problem I have with it is that the font on the inner ring of the slide rule is so tiny that I doubt I could read it. Here's a picture:



I don't know why, but most of the current Seiko slide rules have large numbers on the outer ring, and tiny numbers on the inner ring, but medium-sized time numbers on the inner ring. That may be okay if your close vision is excellent, or if you're always doing time / distance calculations. But if you just want to divide two numbers, those inner numbers are going to be really hard to make out. It's too bad; it seems to me a design choice that ruins (for me) an otherwise outstanding watch. One thing I like about the design is that you can turn the bezel without having to twiddle another crown.

On the other hand, the Seiko SBDM007 (thanks, CFI care) meets all my requirements. Well, all but the budget. I was hoping for something under $200, not something around $1400. But look how much more readable this slide rule is:



and that's just a design choice (which could be implemented just as easily on the cheaper watches).

[Him]

There are some cool watches pictured here.

I've got to say I have a JR3000-51f (the stainless external bezel Skyhawk in CFI Care's post a few back) and really haven't been happy with it. The engraving of the e6b wore nearly smooth over just a few months of wear, and the bezel was sometimes quite stiff. It's a really neat watch in some ways but it just never worked for me.


This is outside your price range but I'm going to mention it because I just bought it at lunch today. (Mine has a metal band, I just found this photo and re-used it.)




Citizen BY0000-56l, about $350 at Costco. One thing I've noticed though is that Costco usually gets watches just before the maker has a new version coming out, so maybe these will be getting cheaper???

Haven't flown or done any flight planning since getting it but I kinda agree that the crown is fiddly...but it beats having all the markings wipe off.

[TickTockMan]

That Citizen BY0000-56l is really sharp! And it does everything. Perpetual calendar, atomic, very readable slide-rule, and the chrono is a sweep design (1/5 second "ticks" instead of one per second, right?).

[TickTockMan]

I found Torgoen. They have several E6B designs, but my favorite is the T1. It's 42mm wide and 14.6mm thick. Has a crown to operate the sliding bezel, but that crown sits alone on the right hand side of the watch, making it much easier to work with. This series looks like it's designed for use rather than decoration. The T2 series is a little fatter: 15.2mm thick, but seems to have a graspable bezel instead of controlling it by a crown. I'm just not sure I want that big a watch on my 6 1/4 inch wrist. (Go ahead, laugh. My brother does!)

These seem hard to find now. The black face version -- PVD black case -- looks very tactical, very handsome.

Torgoen T01 Series

I might prefer the white dial, as seen in this review.

But I have to say that the Orient CTD09001B still looks good to me. One of the things I like is that its large chrono second hand doesn't tick once per second, but 5 times a second. In contrast, the Hamilton Khaki Chrono ETO, which seemed like everything I always wanted, goes tick-tick-tick, with no sub-second timing resolution at all. Too bad.