Vintage
DrStrong's meticulous research into the provenance of his Omega Flightmaster offers a rare glimpse into the life of a French aviation pioneer. This article highlights how a watch can be a tangible link to history, connecting us to the extraordinary careers of individuals like Jean Pierron. His detailed account, enriched with personal photographs, underscores the profound stories often hidden behind vintage timepieces.
Jean Pierron had always been fascinated by mechanics and planes. He started to fly as soon as he could, and after graduating as an engineer of the Ecole Nationale des Arts et Métiers, he got his pilot licence.
Here’s a picture of him as a Lieutenant of the French Air Force in 1939 :
His Potez 631 :
After the war, he started to fly a lot of gliders and even won the Siretta cup in 1947 :
In the 1950’s, Pierron was hired by the SNECMA and worked at the Centre d’Essais en Vol of Melun-Villaroche on the Emouchet SA.104 glider, that needed to be equiped with two groups of three pulso-reactors.
He quickly got a position as a flight test engineer at the CEV in the team of Andre Turcat, the legendary flight test pilot of the Concorde.
He was working for the french company Nord Aviation and participated to the developement of the Griffon II fighter jet and the N262 transport aircraft.
The Nord 1500 Griffon II was a supersonic fighter prototype, developed in the 1950s in order to provide to the French Air Force a fighter capable of Mach 2 by 1960. The Griffon used mixed propulsion by turbojet and statoreactor. The turbojet allowed the aircraft to take off on its own and the stator provided the necessary thrust at high speeds that would not have allowed the weakness of the French turbojets of the time.
Here are pictures of Turcat test-flying the Griffon in 1952 :
The Nord N262 was a French airliner developed in the early 1960s, which was used as a military aircraft (transport, crew training, maritime surveillance), particularly in the French National Navy.
Pierron was the most recognized expert in the N262 engine.
Here’s a picture of the inaugural flight of the N262, Pierron is on the top right wearing a flight jacket :
Here’s another picture taken at the Centre d’Essai en Vol in Istres in 1957 in front of the Fuga Makalu (Pierron is the fourth man starting from the left, wearing his flight jacket again) :
During this period, Pierron travelled to Japan, the USA, Canada, Madagascar,…
In 1969, he was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite for serving his country:
In 1972, the Air Crew Association of the C.E.V offered him an Omega Flightmaster and had the caseback engraved on this occasion :
Later during the 1970’s, Pierron became an engineering consultant for the french firm Aérospatiale, in order to work on rotary valve engines. At the time, the Aerospatiale was developping the Concorde and Pierron participated to a test flight of the legendary Concorde n°1 in september 1977 :
After a lifetime of hard work and more than 5250 hours spent in aircrafts of all sorts, Pierron retired together with his Flightmaster, as shown on this picture taken in Tahiti in the late 1970’s :
Pleasure to read. Regards, George
As a former Air Force F16 pilot with over 7,000 hrs in the cockpit, I can only salute in great respect to the man that was a great aviator. I’ve read your post 3 times over and will probably read it anther 10 times this evening. Thanks for sharing Ps: when I graduated from flight school and got my wings as a fighter pilot, I received an Air Force watch which was given to fighter pilots only. Today I still have that watch. It’s scratched, etc but still running
... offside the mainstream storys - so much passion - what a story! for me as a vintage watch fan absolutly fascinatying - this watch with this engraving and story behind is a true burner! many years before i did some research about the centre d'essaie en vol and tried to find out facts about the number-system, the CEV used for watch registration - but at least it was/is very difficult. would be great, if you find any picture, that shows a watch the preowner of your flightmaster had on his wrist
I hope that it was not too painful to read, as english is not my native langage. And I kown nothing about planes ;-)
probably the CEV delivered these watches to Airforce pilots only ?
Thanks so much for taking the time to post this!
This thread is active on the Omega forum with 30 replies. Share your knowledge with fellow collectors.
Join the Discussion →
