The Flyback column has always been about one thing above all else: celebrating the strange, charming corners of modern watchmaking. This week’s line up might be the most delightfully odd mix yet. In the span of a single Sunday scroll we go from a tongue in cheek dress watch that literally tells you how much shirt cuff to show, to a fresh German pilot’s GMT from a brand new independent, to a lemon coloured pocket watch built for a watchmaking alliance, to a cool headed Swiss regulator, and finally to a one off opal and jade minute repeater made as a birthday gift for a brand founder. 
If your taste in watches runs from accessible to absurd, there is something here with your name on it.
Raymond Weil starts us off with the Toccata Heritage x seconde/seconde/, a collaboration that lands right in the middle of the dress watch conversation. Enthusiasts endlessly debate how big a dress watch should be, how slim, how much of the case should peek from under a shirt cuff, and whether anyone still needs a manually wound formal watch in an age of phones and smartwatches. This piece answers those questions with a wink. The rectangular 33 by 38 millimetre case is elegant and compact, but the real joke is on the dial. It has a vertical scale printed across it that shows, in plain language, where your sleeve ought to end depending on how formal you want to be. Think of it as training wheels for black tie. Flip the watch over and the case back keeps the humour going, reminding you that you should remove the watch when winding it, ideally with theatrical flair in the middle of a conversation
. Under the jokes, though, the watch is surprisingly traditional: a hand wound RW4100 calibre with 45 hours of power and just 50 pieces produced. It is a playful reminder that dress watches can still be fun without giving up the rituals that make them special.
From urbane irony we jump into the cockpit. The VIIS Flieger GMT is the debut watch from Leonie and Josip Kozul, whose new brand is based in Pforzheim, Germany, a town that has quietly been turning out watch parts for generations. 
The model takes the classic Type B Flieger layout that pilots have relied on since the mid twentieth century and gives it a crisp, contemporary refresh. The 42 millimetre stainless steel case in 316L steel is all business, with a mostly brushed finish and small polished accents that catch the light without becoming flashy. At 13.4 millimetres tall with a double domed sapphire crystal and 100 metres of water resistance, it feels much more like a modern everyday tool watch than a delicate flight instrument.
The dial is where the Flieger GMT really earns its keep. It sticks to bold, easily legible pilot hands and a clear minute track, then layers in a 24 hour chapter ring and a sharply tipped GMT hand that orbits the dial once per day. Orange accents and generous Super LumiNova BGW9 lume keep the watch readable when the cabin lights go down or when you are stumbling through an early morning airport. VIIS offers three colourways, each with its own personality: the white Levante feels airy and technical, the black Velebit leans into stealthy tool watch territory, and the blue Adriatic adds a hit of sportiness. On the wrist, the watch comes on a sturdy, colour matched two stitch leather strap that looks ready for long haul travel. Inside ticks the automatic Miyota 9075, an independently adjustable hour hand GMT calibre sometimes described, with a bit of tongue in cheek reverence, as venerable even though it is only a few years old. What matters more than its age is that it offers true traveller style functionality, a 42 hour power reserve, and reliability that lets VIIS keep the price in the accessible range. Would applied indices have pushed the watch even closer to perfection? Probably, but they also would have nudged the sticker north; as it stands, the watch feels like a smart, honest take on the modern pilot’s GMT.
If that is the practical traveller of the group, the Studio Underd0g x Christopher Ward Alliance 02 pocket watch is the extrovert who shows up at the airport in neon trainers. Two years after the first Alliance collaboration, the two British brands have reunited to support the Alliance of British Watch and Clock Makers with a limited run pocket watch built around Christopher Ward’s first in house movement. The 44 millimetre case may be traditional in format, but everything else is gleefully contemporary. The base of the dial is fully lumed in a lemonade gradient that glows like a sci fi prop when the lights go down. Above it floats a sapphire disc that carries the printed hour markers and a power reserve scale, giving the whole display an airy, layered look. Behind the show sits calibre CW 001, formerly known as SH21, a manually wound movement with double barrels, a five day or 120 hour power reserve, and regulation to chronometer levels even if there is no official paper to go with it. It is the kind of movement that makes perfect sense in a pocket watch, where there is plenty of room to admire the architecture, but here it is also quietly doing good by raising funds and awareness for British horology. Access is restricted to alliance members, which only adds to the insider appeal.
Next up is a study in precision time telling: the Louis Erard x Worn & Wound Regulator. Co founder Zach Weiss has long professed his love for regulator layouts, those dials that split hours, minutes, and seconds into separate registers rather than running them all from a single central hand. In this collaboration, that passion gets channeled into a 39 millimetre stainless steel watch powered by the automatic Sellita SW266 1. The case keeps things straightforward so that the dial can take centre stage. It is built in layers, starting with a pale white base and topped by a lacquered cobalt central section. Both surfaces are fluted, creating repeating grooves that catch the light and draw your eye toward the short, fir tree shaped regulator minute hand at the centre. The hours and seconds are displayed on skeletonised wheels that have an almost modernist clock feel, a surprising but satisfying contrast to the more classical textures around them. Limited to just 99 pieces, it reads as a love letter to a niche complication, executed with enough restraint that even someone who has never heard of a regulator before could wear it daily and simply enjoy the unusual layout.
Finally, we leave the realm of the attainable and wander into pure haute horlogerie theatre with the Parmigiani La Ravenale. Officially it is a one off minute repeater created to celebrate the birthday of founder Michel Parmigiani. Unofficially it feels like a reminder of how much human labour can still be poured into a single object when a brand decides to go all in. At its heart is a 1920 era minute repeater movement that has been painstakingly restored and engraved with flowing palm motifs. Surrounding it is a case in 18 carat white gold whose surfaces have been worked over by hand, and a dial executed in lavish opal and jade marquetry that shimmers in shades of green and blue. Even the chain is hand forged, link by tiny link, a detail that borders on the absurd in an age of CNC machines but that perfectly fits the narrative of a birthday watch built as an act of devotion. The language around the piece leans into feudal imagery, with craftsmen toiling away for the approval of their patron, yet the end result is undeniably beautiful
. It is, of course, not for sale; its real function is to exist, to chime, and to signal what Parmigiani as a maison is capable of when commercial considerations are taken off the table.
Taken together, this week’s Flyback selection sketches out a surprisingly complete picture of what watch enthusiasm looks like in 2020s. At one end you have an affordable German Flieger GMT powered by a modern Japanese calibre and built to be worn hard on real trips. At another you have a collaborative dress watch that makes fun of etiquette while still honouring it. Between them sit a glowing British pocket watch and a Swiss regulator that cater to collectors who want something both a little nerdy and a little joyful. Looming above it all is a one off minute repeater that hardly anyone will ever see in person, a reminder that for all the spreadsheets and production runs, high end watchmaking is still, at its core, about people quietly obsessing over tiny mechanical details. Whether your budget is hundreds or the kind of money that never sees a price tag, it is a good Sunday to be into watches.