Flieger watches are iconic in their own right, but making a good-looking flieger is not an easy thing – make it too fateful to the original design and you risk it looking just like all other fliegers on the market; make it too different and suddenly you don’t have a flieger watch anymore. It’s a fine and delicate line to thread.

There are a couple of other issues generally found on pilot watches – their size (most of them are on the larger size – too large for most people’s wrists) and their (almost non-existent) water resistance. The ol’ quip “Well, if a pilot needs a water resistant watch, he’s got bigger problems” is, I think, a lazy excuse, especially since almost none of the people buying fliegers are actual pilots.

On the affordable end of the spectrum, the Ratio Skysurfer solves all of the abovementioned issues.

Let’s start with the design – the dial is unmistakably a type A flieger, but the Arabic numerals utilize a font different from the typical German typography. The hands are sword-shaped (again, like on most fliegers), but the hour and minute hands actually have a two-piece construction, with the lumed section of the hand ending with a syringe-style tip superimposed on the sword-base. The second hand is long, slim and with a counterbalance shaped like the Greek letter “П” which, incidentally, is the brand logo. It’s also worth mentioning that the lume is actually quite good – they say they’re using a Japanese luminous paint (without going into details) and it’s on par with most of the Seiko offerings, in terms of intensity and longevity. The blue sunburst dial is covered with a flat sapphire crystal with internal AR coating.

Moving on to the size – following the recent trends, Ratio have scaled down the size of the Skysurfer, the dimensions being the following: 38mm diameter, 46mm lug-to-lug and a thickness of 11mm. The crown is decently sized at 6mm, however the lug width is a rather unfortunate 18mm. Luckily, the supplied leather strap is surprisingly good and it’s one of those with quick-release spring bars. There’s also a color-matched NATO strap provided in the package, but no 18mm spring bars, so you can’t really use it out of the box. But I guess buying a set of spring bars is gonna cost you less than buying a strap.

Regarding the movement, the Ratio Skysurfer is using Seiko’s NH38, so nothing too remarkable there, but it is nice that they’ve taken the effort to use a non-date movement for a watch that doesn’t have a date, thus eliminating the slightly annoying ghost position of the crown. It’s a small thing, but it shows attention to detail that is unfortunately lacking in more expensive offerings from better-known big brands.

Finally, a few words about the water resistance – the Ratio Skysurfer is marketed as a do-it-all adventure watch, from skysurfing (which I had no idea was a real thing) to actual diving (not skydiving) and as such, it has a 200m water resistance. To bring this point home, they’ve included an engraving of a skysurfer on the caseback – I can’t say I’m a huge fan of this look, but that’s just my personal preference. And while most of the people owning this watch are unlikely to go sky or sea diving with it, the solid WR and the screw-down crown are a welcomed addition for a piece of mind during everyday use.

To summarize – the Ratio Skysurfer is another strong offering from Ratio – well-thought out, solidly-built, very wearable and on top of everything else, affordable, an excellent value proposition. So if you’re looking for a watch to take on your next adventure or simply, a flieger with a slightly different twist, the Ratio Skysurfer is a worthy contender.