There have been a few posts here over the years about various watches made to look like the old VDO gauges in our cars. Some of those watches have been OK, but they usually strike me as a little contrived because, well, they're watches. They should look like watches, dammit, and not tachometers or speedos.
But German Flieger (pilot) watches also look a lot like vintage VDO gauges - for some very good reasons. They were born around the same time (in the 1930s), in the same country, and followed the same design principles - maximum legibility with the cleanest fonts available at the time.
The original fliegers were made for the Luftwaffe to a design standard published by the German government. A lot were needed all at once (apparently, something was keeping the Luftwaffe pretty busy at the time), so the work was farmed out to five different watch companies.
The design has become somewhat iconic among watch geeks over the years, so many are still being produced by a lot of different watch companies today, including some by a few of those five original companies.
One of those companies is Laco, still in business in their original home town of Pforzheim. They make a lot of different models inspired by the original design - some very close recreations. Their best are pretty pricey, with authentic detailing and materials, and fancy Swiss movements. But they also make some fine examples with high quality but much cheaper Japanese movements.
I just got one of these and think it's pretty spiffy - maybe the perfect Speedster watch. Fit and finish are excellent, and it comes on a beefy, leather strap. It even keeps pretty good time.
Anyway, here are some photos of the model I got (the Aachen 39, BTW) and a link to Laco's website. And even though the photos don't show it well, the markings are a light green, very similar to the VDO gauges.
If you want to learn more about these, just search YouTube for 'flieger watches'. There are enough videos to keep you busy even if YouTube should last a thousand years.
