Grails: Rarified Air: Why A Wacky Gold '70s Pilot Watch Is My All-Time Grail

Produced from 1969 to 1977, the Omega flightmaster – lowercase F – was marketed and labeled as a pilot's watch. But it's designed for far more than just aviation. It quietly held its own against its contemporaries in just about every tool-watch category. It featured a chronograph, a second time-zone, an AM/PM indicator, and boasted 120m of water resistance all in a case carved from Swedish steel. While the Speedmaster was selected by NASA for spacefaring applications, on the other side of the iron curtain, the flightmaster was selected by ROSCOSMOS to accompany cosmonauts. Alexi Leonov famously wore one. The Rolex GMT-Master is perhaps one of the most recognized horological designs of all time, featuring a hand that can track GMT or a second time-zone. The flightmaster has a bright blue hand that tracks a second time zone, and it performs the chronograph functions of the Speedmaster. Image: Bonhams The Aquastar Deepstar, an iconic diving chronograph of the era, was rated at 100 meters of water resistance. The flightmaster? 120 meters. And it isn't even a dive watch! Meanwhile, one reference has more gold content than most dress watches. Reference BA345.0801 from 1971 is half a pound of pure 18k gold. Half a pound! And it's this unexpected juxtaposition that makes the watch grail-worthy. It was already superior in terms of engineering and design, and then Omega went and did exactly what exactly no one asked them to and made the watch out of 18k gold, therefore making one of the heaviest watches ever produced. I'm very drawn to the absurdity. Image: Bonhams If I could go back to the year the watch was released, 1971, and I found a way to acquire one, I know I'd have a hell of a good time with it. Of course, I'd have to compete with King Hussein of Jordan; legend has it that he took delivery of a large percentage of the 200 gold flightmasters produced. Image: Phillips I'd match the grail-worthy watch with a grail-worthy experience: An around-the-world trip on the airline that ruled the skies, Pan American World Airways, flying a Boeing 747-100. Introduced in 1970, the 747 made travel more economical with greater fuel efficiency and a larger passenger capacity, but it also allowed for an absolutely lavish flying experience on the upper deck, where the first-class dining room was located. The plane's design allowed for a high ceiling up top, lending the space an air of luxury. After looking over a 1971 Pan Am route map , I put together the perfect trip to match the watch. Boarding in New York, my first stop would be Tehran – the pre-revolution cosmopolitan center of the Middle East – and then onto Karachi, and then Calcutta, known as "the city of joy," before jetting off to my favorite city in Asia, ever-wild Bangkok, for a few nights in the high-profile Dusit Thani hotel, which would have just opened. After Bangkok, it'd be off to Tokyo for some of the best seafood on the planet at Tsukiji Market prior to hopping over to Honolulu to catch a show at the Civic Auditorium. Popular acts in the '70s would stop by en route to Japan and Australia. Finally, I'd end up back on American soil in Los Angeles. If I got lucky enough, sometime throughout the route the captain would have invited me into the cockpit to learn the secrets and witness the beauty of "The Queen of the Skies" as she soared around the globe. And maybe he'd have noticed the half a pound of gold anchoring my wrist. I'm sure it wouldn't be easy to explain that it was indeed actually a cutting-edge pilot's watch, and that no watch even remotely similar would be created over the next 50 years.A golden watch from the golden age of commercial aviation.