And here’s where it all started, back in 1999, with an Agat stopwatch

During flying training I needed a stopwatch to time navigation legs. I’ve never been good at quickly reading digital displays, but (Swiss) mechanical stopwatches on sale at the pilot shops were beyond my reach. What to do?

Browsing eBay I realised there was an affordable alternative - Russian tech. With the USSR having collapsed only 8 years before there were lots of Soviet stopwatches to choose from

£16? A bargain!
It worked great

Little did I know what seeds were being sown..