I never thought I would fall in love with the Stowa Flieger Classic until I did. Much like a last minute hook up at a dive bar, I didn’t expect much from this average looking girl but then she won me over with her nocturnal skills and smooth winding.

I’ve never been a huge flieger fan. I don’t mind the little IWC ones but anything else always seemed about as sexy a Volvo mud flap. This watch has me totally converted though. Amazing blued hands. An incredibly slim and wearable case size at 40mm, enjoyable to wind and insane lume. I’m normally more of a vintage guy. So when a watch glows in the dark it is normally a sign that all the parts aren’t original. I couldn’t even have it on my bedside table at night. It was too bright. I kept on thinking my phone was going off.

This one is a manual wind version with a solid case back. I had the watch open and I can confirm that the ETA movement is finished very nicely. Certainly to a much higher standard than you would expect from a similarly priced Swiss watch. It performs very well too. After being on my timing machine, it looks like the good folks at Stowa regulate the watch to within a few seconds. Again this is better than you would expect from its rivals. Does it really have any rivals though? I was pretty shocked when I found out what these were going for online.

I always thought the direct to consumer business model selling point was a load of marketing spin bull shit. Cut out the middle man and pass on the savings to the end user. I think I will need to eat my words though. The Stowa Flieger Classic certainly play in a higher division than their cost would have you believe. You aren’t going to ever be 100% satisfied with these entry level watches but this one gets pretty bloody close.