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The German watch brand Stowa has long been a favorite of worn&wound. They’re versatile, with standout pilot, sport and modern dress watches, and have a reputation for producing high-quality pieces at very affordable prices. So, we were excited to learn that Stowa was unveiling a completely new model at Baselworld 2013 meeting the new TESTAF standards for pilot’s watches.
Fresh off the launch of several new Sinn watches featuring the TESTAF certification, Stowa has introduced their new Flieger TO1. Notable of course for its performance capability, the TO1 also marks a radical departure from a design perspective for Stowa. The Flieger TO1 is easily Stowa’s most aggressively styled pilot to date. With black dial, dark grey text and matte finished titanium body, the TI 1 oozes stealth. Meanwhile the sharp white hour hands and white indices on the bi-directional bezel and dial make the watch very legible.
Meeting all standards for the TESTAF certification, it also boasts 200 meters water resistance, AR-coated sapphire crystal, superluminova on the dial and hands and Viton sealing material throughout the case and crown, a synthetic rubber used on space vessels. The TO1 is powered by a rhodium-coated top grade ETA 2824-2 with both shockproof and antimagnetic treatment. The display back on the TO1 further shows that the movement features Geneve striping and golden STOWA engraving on the rotor. The Flieger TO1 is available for purchase now (limited to and sells for either $1,387 $1,420 (without VAT tax) with your choice of rubber or buffalo leather strap.
We are also excited to see that Stowa has updated their chronographs with modified Valjoux-7753 movements, utilizing an in-house modification to covert the movement to manual winding. With both the Marine and Flieger Chronographs, the modified movement is visible through a display case back, revealing a Stowa engraved bridge used as part of the modification. With the Marine Chronograph, the modification also allows the case size to reduce in height by 1mm. The manual-wind chronographs are slightly more expensive then their automatic counterparts, with the Marine Chronograph costing $2,201 and the Flieger Chronograph coming in at $2,146.
While meeting with Stowa, we wanted to make sure we got our hands on an Antea, a model that many worn&wound readers have asked about. We’ve included a few hands-on photos, and we can report that the watch is as well finished and solidly build as you would hope for. Also worth noting is the silver color of the dial, which often appears white in photos. In person, the dial has a very nice silver glimmer that is tough to see in photos.
by Blake Malin
