Introducing the Guinand Flying Officer 12h Automatic

In 2016, we announced the return of Guinand, the company once helmed by Helmut Sinn after his departure from his eponymous brand. Driven by new leadership, Guinand promised a revamped catalog of watches that would grow the firm, yet remain true to the ethos that has made Guinand a best-kept-secret in German watchmaking.

One of Guinand’s most technically-interesting watches has been and remains the Flying Officer. It’s a remake of a pilot’s chronograph bearing the same name that Guinand produced in the ‘60s (Guinand’s take on the 24-hour chronograph shouldn’t be confused with the Flying Officer also produced by Galet).

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Going beyond the movement, another appealing trait of the Flying Officer is its size. It measures 37.5mm wide and 11mm thick, which is absolutely wild for a chronograph being produced in 2017.

Guinand first brought the Flying Officer back into the fold in 2011 as a limited edition release during the Hassler era of the brand—that is, after Helmut Sinn left and before the new management under Matthias Klueh took over. It is still currently available for purchase, though last I checked availability seems to be totally dependent on Guinand’s stock of modified 7760s.

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Earlier this summer Guinand unveiled the Flying Officer 12h Automatic—an iteration of the Flying Officer that, while admittedly a departure from the original’s concept, retains some of the foundational DNA of the Flying Officer aesthetic. For sure, it’s a different watch with some significant changes in functionality from the original Flying Officer, but it’s still damn cool.

The Flying Officer 12h Automatic is, as the name spoils, a 12-hour chronograph powered by an automatic caliber—here the Valjoux 7753. The architecture of the 7753 is responsible for a highly pleasing register configuration, with the 30-minute counter at three, a 12-hour counter at six, and the active seconds at nine. And yes, there’s no date window here, too.

As far as the size goes, the case retains its 37.5mm width, but it’s been scaled up in height to about 14mm to account for the automatic movement. The case is stainless steel (fully polished), and it features a domed sapphire crystal with internal anti-reflective coating up top and a screwed case back with a sapphire aperture around back.

One thing that Guinand hasn’t changed in all these years is their direct-to-consumer model. As a result, both the Flying Officer and the Flying Officer 12h Automatic are offered at highly competitive prices. The Flying Officer 12h Automatic is €1,790, and the Flying Officer—with its greater level of movement modification—is a slightly higher, yet reasonable €1,889. Excluding VAT and converted to USD with current exchange rates, that’s about $1,772 and $1,870, respectively. For what you’re getting with either of these two watches, that’s a really solid deal. Guinand

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