The unusual flights of fancy of watch dealer Andy Tolley

Andy Tolley is a “modern-day Indiana Jones” when it comes to collecting vintage watches. “I buy the archives and things like that because I want to reconstruct history,” he says. He enjoys searching for early photographs, advertisements and flight logs to contextualize his works.

His interest in watches began when he bought Seikos during a trip to Malaysia in 1987 as a teenager – although the “catalyst” was a 1950s Breitling Navitimer that he bought at home in Australia in his early 20s. “From then on it was an avalanche of buying and selling and then collecting,” says the semi-retired watch dealer, who now lives in Thailand. “I ended up developing this deep love for pilot watches.”

Around 100 of his 500 pieces are pilot’s watches from the period 1910 to the mid-1970s, which he has collected over the last 15 years. “The pilot’s watches are interesting because they bear the stamp of history,” says Tolley, who is particularly fascinated by the interwar period because of its “larger-than-life figures” and technical advances. “They were essential tools for incredible aviators and pilots during a pivotal time that shaped the world as we know it today.”

Omega Ref. CH 168.18 (1915)

Omega produced its first wrist chronograph in 1913. In 2018, the brand released a limited edition of 18 pieces with this watch’s original 18” CHRO movement. Tolley’s chrome part features the same. “They transitioned from a pocket watch to a wristwatch, so they were still using pocket watch calibers,” he says.

Accompanied by the piece, purchased at a British auction, was a black and white photo of a man holding a bomb from an airplane. Tolley believes he was the original owner of the watch.

Longines Weems Second Setting watch prototype (1929)

In Tolley’s opinion, Longines produced the most important pilot’s watches of the interwar period. U.S. naval officer Philip Van Horn Weems, a pioneer in the field of navigation, collaborated with the Swiss manufacturer to design a wristwatch with an inwardly rotating 60-second dial that allowed a pilot to control the watch with one Synchronize radio time signal.

The BBC introduced the Greenwich Time Signal (six pips per hour) for radio broadcasts in 1924.

“With this watch, you could rotate the inner chapter forward or backward and increase the accuracy of the watch by 30 seconds,” says Tolley. This made it a “critical tool” for navigation, he adds, describing Weems as “the grandfather of our GPS system.”

Tolley’s silver piece, which he says was a prototype made in 1929 with a pocket watch movement intended for the Turkish market, was delivered to Longines’ British agent Baume & Co in 1930. He was informed of his appearance at auction by dealer Paul Pfanner, of Timewise Vintage Watches, who is taking part in the Lapada Berkeley Square antiques, art and design fair in London later this month.

Longines Lindbergh Hour Angle watch (1933)

American aviator Charles Lindbergh made the first non-stop flight between New York and Paris in 1927, sparking a growing interest in aviation. He then worked with Longines on a watch, first manufactured in 1931, that allowed pilots to calculate longitude in conjunction with a sextant and a nautical almanac. This watch features an engraved rotating bezel.

Longines sold Tolley’s silver version to its French agent in 1937. Tolley attributes the delay between manufacturing and delivery to a drop in sales due to the Great Depression. That piece and his Weems watch retained their original bracelets and buckles, he says, and were tool watches to which pilots trusted “their lives.” Tolley hopes to host a public exhibition of his pilot’s watches to mark the 100th anniversary of Lindbergh’s Atlantic crossing in 2027.

Breitling Navitimer (1969)

Tolley strives for the “wow-wow-wow” factor in watches, depending on condition and rarity. “I like something that has miraculously survived in beautiful or excellent condition,” he says. “Somehow it hasn’t been dropped, hasn’t gone swimming, hasn’t been abused by putting olive oil in it [during repair].”

It was the “exquisite” condition that attracted him to this Navitimer. Breitling introduced the model after being asked to make a chronograph for members of the US Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association in 1952. The watch features a slide rule bezel that pilots could use to calculate average speed, distance traveled and fuel consumption, for example.

Tolley counts the Navitimer among the five most important pilot’s watches. However, he suspects that aviators used a stainless steel version and not a gold piece like the one he bought in Japan.

Breitling Navitimer Ref. 8806 (1973)

Tolley’s stainless steel automatic Navitimer was delivered to the United Arab Emirates in 1973, although his research suggests that the then young country had “no real need for a military watch” at the time. He says the piece, which features the UAE coat of arms on the dial, is “very unusual”; he estimates that fewer than 40 were made.

Tolley compares collecting watches to doing a puzzle, except you don’t know what the picture looks like, “and it’s not about how many pieces you end up with.”

Part of his puzzle, he says, is missing the first-generation 32mm Lindbergh Hour Angle watch. The hunt continues. “The game never ends,” Tolley says.