If you’ve followed my horological posts, you know that I love military and/or pilot watches and trying new watch brands. Fortunately, I had the chance recently to do both, with the MALM Air Wolf Viggen Swiss Automatic watch.
MALM is a Swedish brand making waves with its quality, affordable pilot watches. The brand hails from Linköping, Sweden, a city with 80 years of aircraft manufacturing experience. Due to all its aircraft history, Linköping earned the title of “the capital of Swedish aviation.” MALM builds all its watches in its Linköping workshop, completing as much of the process in-house as possible.
The Air Wolf: Visually
One of the first things I noticed when looking at the Air Wolf is how easy it is to read time. Its white indices and large white hands stand out boldly against the solid-colored dial. Note that I tried out the red but there are 8 total colorways. The minute and hour indices are accompanied by large 3-6-9-12 numerals on the dial and 5-55 numerals around the adjustable inner bezel. Encircling the inner bezel is a simple coin-edge outer bezel. Just below the textured bezel is another texture – a grid-like pattern on the aluminum barrel (part of the case).
One of my favorite visual aspects is the matte dial as it enhances the pilot and military feel of the timepiece. And you know how I love a pop of color, so the yellow second hand and “VIGGEN” on the dial are perfect details for me. A final element that almost goes hidden is the silhouette of the 37 Viggen fighter jet that inspired the watch – located as the counterbalance on the second hand and on the 4 o’clock crown.
The Air Wolf: Mechanical
This watch ticks to the beat of a Sellita SW200-1, a 26-jewel automatic movement. The second-hand moves smoothly with just a slight tick between portions of a second. And does it ever tick beautifully – quiet enough to not distract yet you can still hear it when you put it up to your ear. The Air Wolf’s power reserve stands at 38 hours – not super long but more than sufficient for most watch wearers.
The Air Wolf: Comfort
With a surprisingly lightweight case and 20mm integrated bracelet,, Air Wolf is a comfortable timepiece. This comfort factor is enhanced by the perfect size of 40mm and just shy of 12mm in height. MALM sized it down from the traditional, larger “flieger watch” concept to help it fit into the daily life of pilots and airplane mechanics. Perhaps the most significant contribution to comfort is the dual crowns at the 2 and 4 o’clock marks. If you’ve never checked out dual crowns – you don’t know what you’re missing! I’ve tried it on a couple of watches recently and have fallen in love with them. While I love a large crown from a visual standpoint, I hate when it causes pain or leaves marks on the back of your hand. Dual crowns do nothing of the sort and the symmetrical appearance is a real positive factor visually too. The 2 o’clock crown adjusts the inner bezel and the 4 o’clock crown winds the watch and adjusts the time.
Overall
When I received the watch, I was blown away by the overall presentation of it – the watch came in a large custom-made wooden watch box. While I usually display all my watches in a multi-case, this is the kind of case I would keep the watch in to display on its own. Within the box is a suede interior to protect the timepiece. A gorgeous box to accompany a gorgeous pilot watch, for sure. Note – if you’re a watch collector who tends to stick with the same watch brands because you’re concerned about the quality of other brands, you can rest easy with the 5-year warranty MALM offers via the card in the box. Check out the Air Wolf collection here – and you can even pre-order one of the 4 new limited-edition versions coming out soon! They look pretty B.A. if I do say so myself.