There is a couple of watches I have been after for the last few years. One of them is an early Silver dial Glycine Airman with the 692N Felsa "Bidynator"movement. I had the opportunity to buy one recently so thought I post a wee bit about the Airman and the differences between the early Felsa movement ones and the later Schild movement ones. I do apologies for the poor quality of the photos but I hope they manage to show the differences.


The first photo is a 1956 Airman and the second photo is a 1965. The earlier ones were fitted with the pencil hands and a tail on the minute hand as opposed to the hour hand on the later models. Apparently it was for the different timezones which were out by 1/2 hour, off the top of my head that was parts of India, Afghanistan and central Australia etc? On the later models it made reading 24hr time easier as the tail pointed to the corresponding 12 hr time. e.g. not a good example but on the photo above it is 1656 with the hour hand, the tail points to 0456.
The silver dial is also pie-pan whereas on the black dial it is domed.



Both have the wire hacking where a little wire pops out between the 2 and the 4 on "24" causing the secondhand to stop. The hole is visible in the 2 photos above. The later Schild movements had a normal hacking movement and the wire was redundant. Novel solution.
The red-date wheel also changed to black on the later post 1960 ones. Perhaps one of the most recognisable features is the cross-hatched crown which was not present on the early ones.

Later cross-hatch crown on the right. I know there isn't a lot of love for these fix-o-flex bracelets on here but it is too hot and humid for leather here and they are more or less disposable. Leather straps do work a lot better though. There is also a difference in the contour of the bezels which is visible above.
The bezel numbers should also be black but the ones on the early Airman have been re-lumed green.
Not entirely sure about this but I think the circular date magnifier was only on service crystals, they left the factory with square or trapezoidal ones. I usually don't like date magnifiers but these are integral to the crystal so they are not pronounced.
The caseback on the early one were of the screwdown type.

I have forgotten to download the later type which an EPSA Compressor push fit type one.
Being from the 50s and 60s they are 36mm dials which maybe a bit small for some that prefer the modern trend for large dials. They are also quite slim.


A comparison photo with the different sizes I guess are most popular on here. L to R Seamaster 300, Constellation, Airman and Speed master.
Finally a wrist shot.

I am sure I have forgotten a few things but hope this will be of some interest. As a side note there has been a lot of fake Airmen on Ebay lately. Some are outright fakes and some have been Frankens.
Best regards
Jim

 

Great post! I have a reference link here (with a pdf book), that may be of interest to you...
http://www.glycineairman.info/

...and an ad that corresponds to your later watch, here:

(thanks)

 

Andres' book is excellent and well worth a read. I have a manual somewhere, I will see if I can take some photos that are readable. There is a page with the different time zones which is quite interesting.

 

Great write up and watches @Tubber. Congrats on landing the silver dial.

 

Push fit type case-back.

 

Thanks Mark

 

Here are some pages of the manual.
The cover.


Outstanding features!

 

Instructions for use and different time zones.


As if you needed a reason to buy an Airman.

 

There is only 2 pages of the manual left, I wasn't going to post them but might as well post the lot.

And finally....... the guarantee.

 

Maybe this better illustrates the Birchwood box mentioned for shipping back to Glycine for a service.

 

Very interesting post. I particularly find the little wires that pop up at 24 very interesting. Does the wire physically stop the second hand?

 

Yes, it physically stops the second hand. It is a tiny wire, 0.06mm diameter I believe.

 

The 1953 up to early 1955 models didn't have the wire hack but from then until the Schild 2163 movements were used they did. Think the Schild 2163 appeared about 1968?

 

So I would imagine that the second hand is fractionally longer than the minute hand. The wire pushes out when the crown is pulled?

 

Yes, the second hand is the longest. In this photo you can see the different hand lengths and the hole where the wire pops up.


There is an additional sleeve on the stem to allow for operation of the hack wire.
This is a better explanation than I could ever manage.
http://www.nevadawatchrepair.com/glycine-airman-service.html

 

Very, very interesting. Thanks for posting the additional info.

 

Fitting a leather strap completely changes the look.

Wrist shot.

 

Back from service with the correct shaped date magnifier.




Next to a modern 1953 re-issue Airman.

 

Very nice pair of Airman, the silver dial 56 is a rare piece. Where did you locate this one?

 

The Silver dial ones don't come up for sale often. I was fortunate enough to be able to buy this one from a fellow Airman collector I correspond with in the US.