Breitling made some pretty cool boxes back in the day...

Love this one from the 70's :-)

 

 

 

Autavia 1163T, 1969, Jo Siffert

Perfect :-)

Autumn

And time for another new number plate option...

I think that it looks pretty good there and must be legal - correct reflective plate to BS AU145d spec and nowhere vertical to hang a regular one without disrupting the airflow to the radiator :-)

Autavia 11630 Kenya Air Force

Here's my very special 'Kenya Air Force' Autavia.
As a child I was partly brought up in Africa and have spent a lot of time in Kenya.
I used to fly quite a bit too and back in 2002 had the great fortune to get some hours in a Cessna 150 Aerobat out of Nairobi's Wilson Airport with the great Vernon Collins at the Aero Club of East Africa.
Vernon handled the radio while I did the flying :-)
What an experience being able to see some of the most amazing landscape and craters from above.
Incredible too seeing the ground literally disappear far beneath the wheels  as we crossed the great rift.

 

I'm not sure of the history of this particular Autavia but it has the correct (and very rare) dial plus the 'KAF xxx' stamp on the case back :-)

Only restoration work was a new crystal to replace the very badly chipped original - I was just too worried that it might crumble all together and damage the dial. As for the rest of it, I like the fact it's had a life and bears a few bumps and scrapes to show for it.

A sad footnote to this story is that the aircraft that I flew in, Cessna 5Y-AZX, was destroyed in a crash 3 years later, killing both occupants :-(

Rolex 16800

Best of all worlds, plus the more bumps and scrapes, the better it looks :-)

Wabi-sabi Monaco

From Wikipedia
"Wabi-sabi (侘寂?) represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete".[2] It is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence (三法印 sanbōin?), specifically impermanence (無常 mujō?), the other two being suffering (苦 ku?) and emptiness or absence of self-nature (空 kū?).

Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, asperity (roughness or irregularity), simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy, and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes."

Sums up this Transitional Monaco perfectly :-)

2 old Trannies!

Some better shots of this old Tranny that I picked up on a German auction site last summer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here's my favourite Tranny, picked up many years ago :-)

 

 

 

These are of course very early 'Transitional' Monacos from 1969.

Illegal?

Ha! Much nicer black plates back on again.
Just for show of course :-)

Legal!

MOT'd and Taxed so fingers crossed for a dry weekend :-)

Autavia 2446c GMT - Proper Tool Watch!

Proper tool watch.
Ok, it has a chronograph to 1/5 of a second and with the 24 hour bezel plus GMT hand you can track a second time zone etc., but what if you've forgotten your compass?
No problem, with the watch flat, place the dial with the hour hand facing the sun - the GMT hand points North - how cool is that? :-)

 

 

 

All change...

Oil and coolant change.
What a satisfying job - I love tinkering with the Spider :-)