Introducing the Hemel Airfoil

According to Hemel’s founder, Marvin Menke: “It’s the one piece that doesn’t look like anything else in the lineup, the one that’s a notion apart, a little bit more chiseled and demure. It is really about a love for history, but in a non-sentimental way… a respect for design precedent blended with modern lifestyle and capability. And this is why I’m offering an alternate dial for what is essentially the Air League watch but without the commemoration.”

The dial takes its cues from 1970s era British military pilot watches and is available in standard black, navy blue or ivory white. A sub-dial tracks the running seconds and another elapsed minutes. A ceramic bezel can be used to track a second time zone with C3 luminescent 12-hour GMT markers separated by half-hour markers.

The case is polished to a mirror finish from the coin-edged rotating bezel to the screw-down exhibition case back. Between the piston pushers is a vintage styled crown. The watch has a domed sapphire crystal: a first for the HF Series. Inside, once again, is the ST19 hand-winding chronograph made by Sea-Gull, a modern evolution of the Venus 175 that originally powered the mid-century flight watches that inspire the Air League.