Airman 42 Vintage Lume Dial Purist Ref. GL0463

The close working relationship between Gnomon and Glycine allows us to offer Glycine watches at a special introductory price, complete with two years Glycine international warranty.

Besides military watches, Glycine is also a pioneer in pilot watches. Glycine started production of the Airma in 1953. This is the legendary watch that introduced multiple time-zone watches to the market. Since then, Glycine has continuously  developed a chain of aviation watches, ranging from successively more complex world timers to unique collector's items. Examples in their archive are like during the Gemini 5 and Apollo 12 flights in 1965 and 1969. Both these missions, astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad wears a Glycine Airman on his wrist throughout.

Glycine Airman 42 Vintage Lume Dial Purist Ref. GL0463

The Glycine Airman 42 Lume Dial Purist GL0463 was designed based on their original and famous watch from 1953. It features a customised blackout case, with matte white GMT dial, and a unique handset.  

The most significant change for model is perhaps the 12-hour scale on the bezel and the dial, in contrast to the many other Airman models retaining a traditional 24-hour ‘purist’ layout which features an hour hand that only sweeps the dial once per day. Besides the screw down crown at the 3 o’clock position that sets the time and date, the ingenious thumbscrew crown at the 4 o’clock position locks the steel unidirectional rotating bezel in place to prevent accidental bezel movement causing an inaccurate reading of a second time zone, a simple but effective piece of technology from the ‘50s.

Customised blackout case

The bezel is true to the 50s Airman design, featuring the hallmark 24-hour bezel of the original Airman. Furthermore, the only way to rotate it is through manipulating the retained locking feature on the thumbscrew crown at the 4 o'clock position on the case. Once it is unlocked, the friction bezel can rotate in both directions at ease — absolutely pure charming 1950s technology. The crown at 3 o'clock features all the necessary time, date and GMT adjustments.

The Glycine Airman 42 Lume Dial Purist GL0463 has an upgraded domed sapphire crystal that covers almost the entire surface, with three layers of anti-reflective coating on the underside for added clarity under different lighting conditions for excellent durability and readability.

The highlight of Airman is in its full GMT dial. It features a reverse luminous lime-green coloured dial; whereby Glycine reverse the process of applying the entire dial with SuperLuminova while making the hands and numbers in black. Exceptional clarity.

Reverse luminous bright yellow coloured dial

Further, it features the original 24-hour on the outer-track that flanks the black colour. With a double 24 hours markings from its bezel and dial, this allows one to track up to three different time zones, The bold black syringe-style hour markers and handsets are done in black, allowing the SuperLuminova dial to have superb glow-in-the-dark effect.

The Glycine Airman 42 Lume Dial Purist GL0463 is powered by the Glycine GL293 movement which is essentially an ETA2893-2/SW330, operating at 28,800 bph (4 Hertz) with hacking and hand winding capabilities. It has 25/26 jewels with a power reserve of 38 hours. With this movement, the Airman is adjusted for a more purist style time reading by driving the main hour hand around once per day.

The Airman comes with a matching full black Military Nylon Strap, along with a Glycine signed tang buckle.

C1 SuperLuminova

Overall, the Glycine Airman Contemporary 42 Vintage Lume Dial Purist GL0463 exhibits very great value given the history and built of the watch. The original Airman treatment on the case provides the military/aviation look, being in congruence with the original Airman No. 1, merely a sense of nostalgia on many wrists. The unique Glycine looks even cooler, being thoroughly purpose-built and radiating its origins in the cockpit of many airliners back in those days, make this an exceptional bargain and hard to beat. The Airman fits Glycine's philosophy that Mr. Eugène Meylan set out in 1953.

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