So, I got my hands on this Breitling Cosmonaute a while back. Wasn’t brand new, mind you. Picked it up used because I was always curious about that 24-hour dial. You know, the hand goes around just once a day. Seemed like a neat idea, maybe useful, maybe just different.
Getting Used To It
First thing, putting it on. Felt solid, heavy. That’s Breitling for you, I guess. Then came the reading part. Honestly? Took me a good week to stop doing double-takes. My brain was so wired for a 12-hour clock. Looking down and seeing the hour hand pointing somewhere like the usual 4 o’clock position, but it’s actually 8 AM? Yeah, that messed with my head for a bit.
I decided to wear it straight for a month, see if I could actually make it work for me. This was during a time I was working on a pretty intense project from home. My hours were all over the place. Sometimes starting work at 3 PM, sometimes 3 AM. Sleep schedule was a total wreck. I thought, okay, maybe THIS is where the 24-hour watch shines. Tells you exactly where you are in the full day cycle, no AM/PM confusion.
The Actual Experience
Here’s the thing though. While the project was chaos, the watch… well, it told the time. In 24-hour format. Did it magically fix my messed-up schedule or sense of time? Nah. Not really.
- Reading it: I got faster, sure. But it always required that extra half-second of mental calculation, especially when I was tired. Quick glances were tough.
- Usefulness?: In my specific messed-up schedule situation? It didn’t offer much advantage over just looking at my phone or computer clock, which clearly say AM or PM or use 24-hour format anyway. Maybe if I was locked in a room with no windows for weeks? But I wasn’t. I was just working weird hours.
- Winding: Mine was a manual wind Navitimer Cosmonaute. So, every morning, or whenever I remembered, I had to wind it. Became part of the ritual. Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it. Just something I had to do. Felt a bit old-school.
After The Project
Once the project finished and I got back to a more normal routine, the 24-hour dial felt even less necessary. Actually, it became slightly annoying again. Trying to quickly tell the time during a meeting or while driving? That little extra brain-check got old.
So, what happened? I wore it less and less. It wasn’t because it’s a bad watch. It’s built like a tank, looks pretty cool with that busy Navitimer dial. But the core feature, the 24-hour thing, just wasn’t practical for me in everyday life. It felt more like a specific tool for a specific job I didn’t have – maybe for pilots back in the day, or astronauts like Scott Carpenter who asked for it. Makes sense for them perhaps.
Now? It mostly sits in the box. I take it out sometimes, give it a wind, wear it for a day to remember that crazy project period. It’s a conversation piece, definitely. People ask about the dial. But for daily use? I just grab a standard 12-hour watch. Easier on my brain, you know?
