Classic Laco Fliegers Gets The Cali Dial Treatment

Laco is showing off some of the flexibility of their flieger watches with a pair of summer ready limited editions that pair white California dials with blued hands and dial marking. The two watches are the Napa, and the Santa Ynez, and they offer a new interpretation of the brand’s timeless pilot watch stylings in a way that says “sure, the pilot stuff is cool, but maybe take a load off every now and then”. They are a welcome admission of the true use cases for the vast majority of pilot’s watches these days. 

We’ve seen these two designs stretched into different directions in the past, from black and orange, to field watch green, and they never seem to look out of place. It’s the same story with the white and blue, which provide a levity to the design that we don’t often associate with OG war pilots.

The Napa dial sets a chapter ring at the dial’s edge for the minutes, and a set of outlined numerals, Arabic on the bottom, Roman on the top, to mark off the hours. The rest of the expanse is clean white, and as the markers and even hands are mere outlines, the look in total offers a pleasant level of uniformity. There’s just enough contrast to retain an acceptable level of legibility to read the broadsword hands. 

The Santa Ynez gets the familiar B style dial with oversized Arabic numerals marking each 5-minute increment. The California configuration is moved to the interior of the dial to mark the hours. Each dial is placed within a steel 42mm case that measures 11.75mm thickness and houses a Miyota 821A. Without much of a bezel to speak of, these dials feel rather expansive but wear easily and comfortably on the wrist for their size. 

If you dig the old school pilot watch stylings of Laco but have never been quite on board with the earthy color schemes, these LE’s offer a refreshing take on the formula. Each example will be limited to 100 pieces, and priced at $540. Laco.