By Vincent Deschamps
Pilot’s chronograph
Laco is a brand that has made a few apparitions on The Calibrated Wrist before. We’ve featured its full-fledged chronographs, aviation-themed GMTs, and even one of its dressier collections. However, its pilot watches only made one cameo in a limited edition commemorating the brand turning 100, even though it is the genre of timekeeping devices the German brand is best known for, and has been for the past eight decades. Perhaps the situation is such because we felt secretly obligated to save up our digital ink to tell the right story about the right Laco pilot watch—not your run-of-the-mill Type A or Type B Flieger too many folks have created too much content about, and which we’ve seen been made by other German or Swiss brands. And even though Laco does make these watches—look at its Basic collection for example—a few years back it decided it ought to come up with a modernized version of them, technically superior to what it generally offers, and visually more versatile.
Hence the Flieger Pro collection which comes in both Type A’s and B’s and through which Laco drastically upped its own ante so to speak by stuffing as many professional-grade specifications into classical-looking pilot watches—with a gentle elegant twist. If you’ve shopped on Laco’s website before you will probably be familiar with the brand’s customization tool, which allows you to pick various dial colors, case dimensions, upgrade movements, add a date complication or not, permit to see the movement by way of a see-through case-back or not, or choose amongst one of many strap or bracelet options. The specimen we are taking a look at is my personal Pro Flieger Type A Stuttgart (the Type B is called Kalrsruhe) which I customized from the mindset of “engineering” my own version of the perfect go-anywhere-do-anything timepiece, which you probably didn’t think could be a classic Type A flieger. I will detail it below but first let’s talk price: roughly $1,974 CAD excluding taxes.
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Hands on with the Solios Sunseeker
Key features of the Laco Flieger Pro Stuttgart
Specs
Yes, I can hear you loud and clear already: that’s a lot of dough for any watch and perhaps more so for a World War II-era pilot’s one since stylistically it hasn’t evolved much in many decades. I do hear you but you must hang around a few minutes to develop an appreciation for what’s under and around the hood with this Stuttgart. And because the SKU for each version is different, mine is FPA.37.G.D.X.A.E.U.D.L.M.R. which is a mouthful to swallow and means, in layman’s terms, that this is the reference number for the most awesome of Type As you could ever come across. Thank you very much. So what you would get begins with the case dimensions and you can choose from three diameters: 37, 40, or 43mm, and the larger it is the more you have to pay for it (and that is the general philosophy here: each upgrade you make to your custom built adds to the total cost.) I opted for 37mm because I’m a classical guy and for I was born with moderately average sized wrists of 6.50”/16.5cm.
The 37mm diameter is complemented by a 44.5mm lug-to-lug distance, a 10.95mm thickness, and 18mm lug width. It does wear really well as demonstrated in the picture above. And now the fun begins: I opted for the closed screw-down case-back because you will find me generally looking at the dial of a watch and not its rear-end, which does not affect its water resistance in any case, and combined with a screw-down crown, you get a depth rating of 200 meters which is ton loads of it if you ask me. Above the dial there is a slightly domed sapphire crystal for which I opted to have double-sided clear-anti-reflective coating for superlative clarity (wearing the watch on a weekly basis for three months hasn’t created the much-feared scratch marks on the outside of the sapphire.) Below the clear-as-day crystal Laco applied obscene amounts of SuperLuminova C3 on all printed elements save for the logo and “Made in Germany” wordmark at the six, which glows instantly and for many hours on end.
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The lume here is beyond excellent and is on par with the best of 3D ceramic-based blocks of luminescent material I’ve seen on the market thus far—e.g. the Christopher Ward C60 Trident Lumière. And what I like about it is the fact that it keeps the dial flat and classic-looking, not too deep or looking ultra-utilitarian as we often see nowadays—which is something that matters a great deal to me personally. Inside the Stuttgart beats a workhorse of a caliber—as if the watch wasn’t already turning into a beast—the Laco 200 based on the Sellita SW200-1 which ticks at 4Hz and is endowed with a reasonable 38 hours of power reserve. It comes standard in the élaboré variant which is regulated to run at +/- 7 seconds per day, albeit mine runs at +1 which is beyond excellent. And lastly, there is the question of the fastening systems: amongst options for three aviator-style leather straps Laco offers the bracelet equipped with a butterfly clasp, double-screwed links, and half links.
I opted for the latter to get the full everyday sports watch and GADA vibes.
Of Interest
Evidently, the Flieger Pro Stuttgart gets its professional denomination in great part from its technical specificities which are plentiful and do account for a majority of what you pay for. What is further to be added to these, and which make up another portion of its price (and of its professional status), are the high standards of manufacturing and finishing Laco imposes on itself. Trust me on this or hopefully you will get the opportunity to see for yourself in the future—the stuff is good. The aforementioned lume, about which I’ve spoken a lot already with a tear of joy in my eye, is crisply printed on all hour markers, each dash of the minute track and the circle englobing the whole, as well as the hands. There isn’t one bit out of place, not a microscopic smudge the most anal of watch enthusiast could spot under macro. Thus it shines bright at night and for a long time and aids with daytime legibility since all time-telling elements intensely pop from the matte black dial.
And the same meticulous attention to detail can be seen in the execution of the date aperture I did choose to have on my Type A Flieger—nuts! For once, amongst the hundreds of watches I’ve gotten my hands on, the numerals are perfectly centered within the aperture—all of them, not some, but all. This is the level of production we might generally expect from luxurious brands, and even then some of them find ways to mess it up. Laco offers you the possibility to either get black printed numerals on a white date disc of the opposite, and I chose the latter for it permits the date complication to seamlessly blend with the dial layout. And what makes the Stuttgart a dash elegant, as mentioned in the introduction, is the re-proportioning of all dial elements (compared to other Laco fliegers) where the numerals were reduced in size, the triangle + dots at the twelve shrunken a tad too, and the hands thinned out. The dial is extremely legible but more elegant thanks to its proportions.
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Specs
| Case | 316L Stainless Steel 37mm Diameter 44.5mm Lug to Lug 10.95mm Thickness 18mm Lug Width Screw-down Caseback & Crown 100m Water Resistance |
| Dial & Crystal | Domed Sapphire Crystal Matte black Type A pilot dial Blued Sword Hands Super-LumiNova C3 |
| Movement | Laco 200 Élaboré ±7 seconds per day 26 Jewels 28,800vph 38-Hour Power Reserve |
| Strap | Stainless Steel Bracelet |
Laco Flieger Pro Stuttgart Type A
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Final thoughts
Whenever we consider purchasing a new timepiece, and whenever we entice you to take a closer look at those we review, price is always one of the biggest considerations we must…consider…before pulling the proverbial trigger on one (unless you’re filthy rich of course). $1,974 CAD is no cheap change obviously, and you could say Laco is asking for a lot of dough for the Stuttgart in my perfect configuration. (I know, I know.) However, the realistic devil in me would say this: 200 meters of water resistance, nuclear-level lume, an élaboré Sellita SW200-1 caliber, a very good bracelet, a double AR’ed sapphire crystal, and heat-blued hands (which I forgot to mention,) combined with excellent manufacturing and finishing evidently cannot be had for $500 CAD–especially when being offered by an iconic German watchmaker with more than 100 years of history. The latter element cannot be priced of course but must be taken into consideration when you are considering what I know you are considering.
That’s all.
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About the author
Vincent Deschamps is a museum professional, originally from France, with more than 10 years experience as a researcher, producing visitor experiences for national and international organizations. He is also the founder of mainspring.watch. You can follow Vincent on Instagram.
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