OK, confession time. I think I might be obsessed with collecting - although, curiously not using - air miles. Aside from accumulating miles through credit-card spending, I am now a member of no fewer than eight airline-loyalty schemes and I've even started to frequent the FlyerTalk online forum in anticipation of my first "mileage run".
For the benefit of sane, normal people, a mileage run is when you fly to a destination, or sometimes just around the houses, purely for the points - flying, for example, from Hong Kong to Tokyo, enjoying some sushi and sake at Narita, and then flying back.
Why bother? Well, for elite status - that tantalising utopia of upgrades, lounge access and priority boarding - of course.
I suppose, in a weird way, the air-miles thing makes me a fly boy of sorts, but if you're a real fly boy, as in one who enjoys flying for the sake of flying then, obviously, you're going to be more interested in a pilot's watch than air miles (although it so happens buying a watch means a shed load of points - just saying).
And so we start this column with the daddy of pilot's watch brands, Breitling, which to this day remains independent and family owned. Breitling is famous for its chronometers and the Chronomat 44 Frecce Tricolori (top) is a collaboration with celebrated Italian aerial acrobatics team Frecce Tricolori. The 44 in the name refers to the 44mm steel case, which is a reasonable size given the sheer enormity of many pilot's watches on offer these days.