I finally bought one of these German-made watches!

I've wanted a Flieger for several years now. It's been a while. A Flieger is a specific type of pilot watch that was manufactured for the Luftwaffe or Air Force during World War II. Flieger means flyer auf Deutsch and originally Fliegers were 55 millimeter highly legible tool watches that had large amounts of luminous radium paint and like so many other modern collectors I love the Flieger design. I love the simplicity. I love the quality. I love the versatility and I do think that they make for great sport watches today. So I just got one after years of coming close of almost buying this one or that one. I finally picked one out and I bought the Stowa Flieger Vintage 6498. Stowa was one of the original manufacturers of the Flieger along with Laco, Vempe, IWC and Lange. I chose Stowa because I think that they present the sweet spot in terms of cost and quality and from my past reviews of different Stowa models I came away impressed with the level of finishing, the details, the wrist presence and those experiences made me want to buy a Stowa in the future. So the one I picked out is priced under 2000. It's hand assembled. It's made in Germany and I think the quality really comes across. Now Stowa has no retail presence in the United States so I had to order this from their website in Germany and I knew that I wanted one of the larger sizes of the Flieger. They make them as small as 36 millimeters and as large as 42 and I enjoy larger sport watches and the original Fliegers again were 55 millimeters so I felt that it was ideal to go with this 41 millimeter option and I specifically chose the 6498 because I really wanted a hand wind caliber like the originals had and I knew that this movement would just look so good within this case. Notice how large it is, how it really fills the entirety of this case back space and it has lovely traditional top grade finishing with clean plate striping, spiral brushed wheels with polished teeth and of course the heat glued screws. I think it looks fantastic and it definitely is uncommon to find this level of movement finishing in a sub $2,000 watch. Now if I had to nitpick I would have liked to see some purling on the back plate but honestly that's a little quibble there. This is a beautiful movement for this price. I also love the large balance that is set with a brushed swan neck regulator. Notice how the balance has multiple screws set into it and this allows a watchmaker to fine adjust the timekeeping just like a vintage pocket watch. Now not every Unitas 6498 has different features like this one does like the spiral wheel decoration, the swan neck or the balance screws. This is upgraded by Stova and I think it really sets the watch apart from others at or even a little bit above this retail price. The large onion crown is easy to use, the winding action is smooth and it's surprisingly loud. It has a good clicky sound and feel and a small amount of resistance as you wind it but it definitely does not feel grainy or gritty at all. Now as far as the dial goes this is a matte black dial and it works as the ideal backdrop for the large amounts of old radium superluminova. Everything basically is loomed here from the arabic markers to the index track and it's colored to match the look of aged radium. That's a warm beige color and normally I'm not a fan of old radium loom because I think it's over used on modern watches but when you have one of the original manufacturers of kind of an iconic design, when you have a proper homage like this one, I don't know, I just felt like it was the right choice. Now the hands are long they go all the way to the at least the minute hand goes all the way to the edge of the index track and that's a feature that I appreciate. I opted for the brushed silvered hands because I thought they would be a little bit more legible but I don't know in hindsight I kind of wish that I would have asked for the heat blued hands and maybe I'll reach out to Stova and ask if I can buy the hands so that I could swap them out later on down the road. There is no logo on this specific model, I think this is all about the time, it's all about the execution, the simplicity and I enjoy that about this Flieger. You can't tell which manufacturer it is unless you take it off and take a look at the large Stova signature that's in this hand Now here's the lume shot, there is so much lume, it's bright, it's green, it has good longevity and I think it's a selling point of the watch. The case is entirely brushed and you might think that that would make the watch feel just a little too austere or toolish but I haven't found that to be the case. In fact, I think this watch is very versatile. I bought it on the brown leather strap which is a nice leather strap, it's not stiff, it's nice and long so it fits my 7.3 inch wrist out of the box and it also conformed to my wrist right out of the box which is something that I appreciate as a watch collector but I think this watch just sings on a polished Milanese mesh. This mesh is from the German brand Staib, it's become my favorite way to wear this Flieger. I wear this on the mesh more than I wear it on the leather but I've also been playing around with some other options. Yesterday I took this on a hike into the foothills of the Ochre mountains in Utah and for that I put it on a black Artem rubber sailcloth and that looked pretty sweet. It worked well for the aerobic type of activity that I was engaged in. The mesh would have also been fine but the rubber is lighter and I'll look forward to playing with other strap options in the future because you know again this watch is very versatile. Now the last thing that I'd like to show you is the customization that I ordered for this. Stova offers engraving of the movement wheel or the case side. It's a little bit under 70 euros to add and since I got this one to be a permanent member of my watch collection I wanted to add something meaningful. Vintage Fliegers had a number that was in the side of the case it was FL23883 and that was an official designation for a military issue tool. FL stood for Flieger I and that was aviation equipment. 23 was the pilot designation and 883 was the reference number that the German testing office for aeronautics designated. So I decided to do something a little similar. I opted for case side engraving so that it could be visible to me while I wore the watch. So I had Stova engraved 10 12 25 and it's just a date that's really significant to me. That's the date that I became a Christian and committed to follow Jesus Christ throughout my life. So now every time I look at my watch and I see those numbers I remember that beautiful day and since it's a I don't know just a sentimental aspect it adds something to my wearing experience of the watch. Ultimately this is a great release from Stova from the fit, the finish, the details, the movement, the overall versatility. I think this is very solid value considering the roughly 1600 euro retail price. This is the newest keeper in my watch collection and I really enjoy winding it and wearing it regularly. Let me know what you think. Thanks for watching today. I've placed links to Stova's website below and I do anticipate creating more content on Stova in the future. So please subscribe if you'd like to stay informed of when that happens.