[Proenski]

Hope you can help me out here; I just got my first Airman (base 22 with GMT hand) although it is not my first 24 hour watch. Anyway, I set the time and after a while I checked the time but it was completely off. So I set the time again thinking I made a mistake but again after a while it was off.

To ensure I wasn't going mental I got a regular quarz piece and set them both to 12 o'clock and let them run. Both are running exactly the same on a 2x 12 hour cycle. So after 5 hours the real time is 17:00 (shown by the quarz) but the Airman shows it is 10:00 because of its 24 hour dial.

Of course this isn't normal but what is going on here? Wrong movement? Regulation issue?

Please help!

 

[ccwatchmaker]

You have confused me. First, the quartz watch. You set the hands to twelve o'clock--straight up. After five hours, the hour hand is pointing to five (either 0500 or 1700) You state that you set both watches to twelve. This would place the hour hand on the Glycine straight down, since 12 is at the bottom of the 24 hour dial. Is this correct?

After five hours running, the Glycine is indicating 1000? Discounting the possibility that the watch ran backwards two hours, the hands would have to cover 22 hours in five hours in order to read 1000.

If at the beginning of the test, you set the hands on the Glycine straight up (2400) and then after five hours, the indicated time was 1000, the hour hand would be pointing to where the numeral five would be on an ordinary 12 hour dial--the same as the quartz watch. It would seem that the motion work--the gearing under the dial the controls the movement of the hour hand is a for a 12 hour dial rather than a 24 hour dial. Does this make sense? Possibly the quality control folks were on coffee break when this one got out of the factory?

This could be a relatively simple fix if the parts were available, although not a DIY job.

James Sadilek --ccwatchmaker

 

[Dennis Smith]

Since you have a GMT version, your main hour hand will go around twice per day since it's a 12 hour hand. Only the fourth (GMT) hand is a 24 hour hand. Is that the problem? Did you expect both hands to be 24 hour hands?
Otherwise, your watch could be magnetized.

 

[wtma]

For what I'm aware of, all GMT Airman's will have the main hour hand goes around full circle twice a day. Only the GMT hand makes one revolution a day. I think you're looking for purist Airman.

 

[Emre]

Please post a photo of your watch and the model reference number-on case back.
base 22 has a execution 'G' where the main hour hand is a 24 hour hand and the blue GMT hand is 12 hours - opposed to the main stream models -
Don't want to confuse you , if you have the papers of the watch post also the whole reference numbers with digits and letters.

 

[Proenski]

Thank you all for the responses so far. To avoid confusion I re-did my little test; I started at midnight 24:00 and let 3 watches run next to eachother. First the Airman, a Raketa handwinding. 24 hour watch (love those penguins..) and an Orient Dyno Quarz

The result after 3 hours:


With the risk of sounding silly; to me the Airman reads as it is 6:00 instead of 3:00 (compared to the Raketa)?? Anyway reference on the warranty is 3887.19.MB, on the watch it says 3887.3

 

[Emre]

Well yes, this model is a normal GMT watch where the main hour hand is a 12 hour hand like in classic watches and the GMT hand is the 24 hour hand, or it should be 24h hand. The main hour hand has no hour markers corresponding to it, that's normal, there you use your previous memories of dial lay out to know the time.

If you did set also that GMT hand at 24 o'clock during this time test and it ended up at 6 o'clock in 3 hours, then definitely something is wrong.

 

[Proenski]

Oww man, I do feel a bit stupid now... o| I somehow assumed the GMT version operated the same as the Purist. Thanks all for clearing this up for me! To my defence I've been reading up on this and I'm not the first to make this mistake... :-d

I'm not sure what I will do, I very much like the esthetics of the watch (both Purist and GMT) so I think I will give it a go and decide later. I did read somewhere that the GMT could be converted to a Purist version as it uses the same movement. Can anyone give me an indication on how much that would cost? It seems less hassle than selling and re-buying.

P.S. how do I set the GMT hand? This watch came without the manual

 

[Emre]

But is the GMT hand working as it should be on 24 hour bases?

If it's a confusion rather than technical concern,no worries, we all get confused sometimes. Once I bought a watch thinking it has the moon-phase complication ( the sales photo was with moon ), when it arrived I understood there is also a sun opposite the moon and they both act as an hour hand and I still need to look up to see the phase of moon

Yes there is a way to convert this model to purist. They remove the GMT hand and replace the pinions I guess. I have a very reliable watchmaker and friend who is also in The Netherlands,Ronald Prins. If you decide to convert your watch check with him. He is also a member here in WUS, his website is: http://uwklokkenmaker.nl/horloges/

 

[ccwatchmaker]

The photographs are very helpful. It appears the hour hand is acting like a normal hour hand, 2X12. If that is the way Glycine intentionally made it, they need to have their heads examined.

So then why is the GMT hand traveling along with the hour hand? It should be pointing at 3. I'm sticking with my original diagnosis. The parts under the dial are incorrect. If the GMT hand was in the correct position, then one might conclude that the watch should have had a 12 hour dial rather than 24, but with the GMT hand pointing to the same marker as the hour hand after three hours running, there is a definite problem.

James Sadilek -- ccwatchmaker

 

[gabecrozier]

I have the Glycine Airman 17 GMT. Pull out the time setting crown one stop to date function. Rotate down for date and up to set 24 hour hand. It's a hacking movement too. Cheers

Sent from my STV100-4 using Tapatalk

 

[Proenski]

But is the GMT hand working as it should be on 24 hour bases?

If it's a confusion rather than technical concern,no worries, we all get confused sometimes. Once I bought a watch thinking it has the moon-phase complication ( the sales photo was with moon ), when it arrived I understood there is also a sun opposite the moon and they both act as an hour hand and I still need to look up to see the phase of moon

Yes there is a way to convert this model to purist. They remove the GMT hand and replace the pinions I guess. I have a very reliable watchmaker and friend who is also in The Netherlands,Ronald Prins. If you decide to convert your watch check with him. He is also a member here in WUS, his website is: Horloges - Uw Klokkenmaker

Yes Emre, the GMT hand is working on a 24 hour cycle.

I will contact the watchmaker and let you know how that goes (I still have some other ideas).

So it appears all is as Glycine intended it. Personally I think it would have been less confusing if they somehow would have included a 12 hour scale as well but it is what is.

 

[Emre]

It's good to hear that the watch functions as intended and the GMT hour is a 24 hour hand.

The idea behind Airman GMT models is actually to track 3 timezones, hence the inner and outer 24h bezel.

While you track your home time with the main hour hand on 12 hour bases, you set the GMT hand to a second time zone on the inner 24 hour ring and also adjust the 24h outer rotating bezel according to your desired 3rd timezone so that with one GMT hand you read two timezones.

Purist Airman in this case have no GMT hand but with setting the bezel you read the second time zone via main hour hand. It's basically that the 24h bezel replaces the GMT hand.

 

[Proenski]

Thank you Emre, I fully understand (now) ;-) The funny thing is that I have both genuine 24 hour watches as well as another GMT that operates exactly like the Airman GMT but what threw me of the track is the fact that the Airman GMT only has 24 hour scales..

 

[Horologic]

I thought it was strange the Base 22 GMT main hands run 12 hours a day when the dial is printed for 24 hours. Do they still make the blue GMT execution ?

 

[publandlord]

I thought it was strange the Base 22 GMT main hands run 12 hours a day when the dial is printed for 24 hours. Do they still make the blue GMT execution ?

Why? Most watches sold as a "GMT" have a regular 12-hour hand and an additional 24h hand. The 24h dial printing is for the additional hour hand; the regular 12h hands you tell the time using the general position of the 12h hand, just like you would on a dial with non-numeric indices, like this one:

 

[Proenski]

True but this model has normal indices where the Airman GMT only has a 24 hour scale which makes it slightly confusing, at least to me.

 

[Dennis Smith]

As a side note... Glycine recently added the DC-4 Airman to their lineup, which alleviates this type of common confusion since they offer a 24 hour dial with the purist version and a 12 hour dial with the 12/GMT (both versions have the 24 hour bezel).

P.S. I just noticed that the pic I found on the net shows the purist model with an additional 24 hour hand. This would NOT be on that watch.

 

[Proenski]

As a side note... Glycine recently added the DC-4 Airman to their lineup, which alleviates this type of common confusion since they offer a 24 hour dial with the purist version and a 12 hour dial with the 12/GMT (both versions have the 24 hour bezel).

P.S. I just noticed that the pic I found on the net shows the purist model with an additional 24 hour hand. This would NOT be on that watch.

Not sure but it seems they did the same with the DC-4, both a Purist and a GMT version...

 

[Proenski]

Yes Emre, the GMT hand is working on a 24 hour cycle.

I will contact the watchmaker and let you know how that goes (I still have some other ideas).

So it appears all is as Glycine intended it. Personally I think it would have been less confusing if they somehow would have included a 12 hour scale as well but it is what is.

I have contact Ronald Prins, which by the way is a very nice guy and very professional, but his answer was very simple; do not convert the movement. Too much risk. Hands will become too vulnerable to shock etc. He did give me some other tips and answers to a bit more general questions I had. In short worth the phone call.

For now I set the time and instead of using the GMT hand for a different time zone I set it to the same time so now I have both a 12 hour time indication as well a 24 one. I don't really need a third time zone but I can still use the bezel to set a second one.

Perhaps I will add a DC-4 purist later in time to the collection ;-)