Last week I finally pulled the trigger on a Glycine Airman ($695 on Jomashop) but I had to decide between a Purist model with a true 24-hour movement and a standard model with steel band. I chose the steel band model – I liked the styling better – but now I wish I had waited because dammit Massdrop has a the DC-4 in for $599 for either movement and I could have bought a steel band from Ebay and been a happy baby.

Dammit.

Anyway, this is a pretty good deal. The Airman 24-hour watch has as much provenance as the Speedmaster in terms of historical significance and styling. The original watch was a truly state of the art, created in 1955 for pilots who flew long routes and needed a sane way to manage time zones. The 24-hour movements were quite unique back in the day and by the 1960s they were popular war watches.

From Nevada Watch:

?Throughout the 60s and until 1978, an important era for Glycine because of the Airman’s popularity amongst aviators and others in Vietnam, the watch remained essentially outwardly unchanged. However during this period, the A. Schild caliber went from 1700/01 to A. Schild caliber 1903, and finally to A. Schild caliber 2163. In 1978, Glycine ceased production of its Airman with the mechanical movement due to the increasing popularity of watches with quartz movements rather than mechanical auto winding movements.

Obviously Glycine is about to hit a pretty weird place now that it’s owned by the QVC darlings Invicta and I suspect it will start heading downhill. Until then grab some of that old Glycine stock before things get messy. Also make sure you get the 24-hour movement – don’t be sad, old fool like me.

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Last Update: May 22, 2017

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