The Grand Flieger Airport: Ceramic on a Pilot's Watch
At Inhorgenta 2020, Tutima fitted the Grand Flieger Airport with a ceramic bezel for the first time. The material choice was not aesthetic — it was mechanical.
A pilot's bezel rotates before every flight. It gets gripped, turned, bumped, scraped against instrument panels and seat rails. On a stainless steel bezel, this history accumulates as fine scratches within months. On ceramic, it does not. The material rates 9 on the Mohs hardness scale — harder than steel by a factor of three.
The Grand Flieger Airport traces a direct line from the 1941 Fliegerchronograph through the 1984 NATO Chronograph to the present collection. It is one of Tutima's top sellers, as Matthias Philippi noted at Geneva Watch Days. The 2020 ceramic models apply current material science to a tool watch that has been in continuous evolution for eight decades.
Two bezel colors arrived with the update: Classic Blue and Military Green, each colour-coordinated with its dial and strap. The bezels are bidirectional with a red marking point at 12 o'clock, treated with Super-LumiNova for low-light legibility. The same luminous compound covers the hour and minute hands and all dial indexes.
The case is 43mm stainless steel with a screwed crown, pressure tested to 20 atmospheres. Anti-reflective sapphire crystals cover both the dial side and the caseback.
Two movements serve the line. The three-hand Ref. 6106-01 runs Caliber 330 — self-winding, 25 jewels, with day-of-week and date, its rotor bearing an 18-karat gold seal. The chronograph Ref. 6406-03 uses Caliber 310, adding 12-hour, 60-second, and 30-minute counters to the same day-date display. The 6106-01 pairs the Classic Blue ceramic bezel with a grey Cordura textile strap. The 6406-03 combines the Military Green bezel with a dégradé dial and textile strap. Both straps close with a stainless steel deployment clasp.
The evolution is specific and deliberate. The 1941 original used Bakelite bezels. The NATO Chronograph used anodized aluminum. Ceramic is the third bezel material in 80 years of Flieger production.