Mostly whimsy I would expect. As I remember, Carl spent his career working as an RAF fabricator (the sort of general engineer who made whatever was needed from scratch) before moving on, in his retirement to making the highly regarded gas gas bones range of straps. Now that he's moved into watches, it's a very natural logo for a man steeped in RAF tradition as, in his youth, it would have been the designation for the very highest quality of timepiece used by aircrew. Sadly it isn't any more, with the advent of NATO stock numbers.
The Pheon or broadarrow symbol, historically a sign of crown ownership of something (and still to be seen on very old things throughout the defunct British Empire and even remembered as a sign of oppression - as it would be scribed into taxed or confiscated goods such as buildings or lumber) In this case it was a historical reminder of the allegiance and ultimate boss and owner of the armed forces and all their chattels; it's a reminder that this watch wasn't yours, it was the king's (or queen's) As such, any military watch carrying an undischarged pheon is, in principle, stolen, or at least borrowed, from her Majesty.
Now the acceptability to the crown of using the pheon has already been tested by Eddie at Timefactors with his now rather collectible and highly regarded range of broadarrow watches like this one:
Which, as you can see, clearly display the pheon. Sadly, while the pheon was acceptable to the crown, Omega got into a huff about the word 'broadarrow' and threw an embarrassment of lawyers and money at it. Eddie tells the tale in his usual dryly humorous manner over on TZ-UK. However, it wasn't the pheon that was the issue as another of his fine watches from a few years later shows
(spot the odd one out)
Meanwhile, the 6b/xxx isn't just a designation, it's a specification. The RAF had specifications for everything, for example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...specifications
So all those lovely watches you see from Cyma or Waltham or Longines are actually following the 6B/159 specification. That's why they all look so similar - because the original designs and dials can usually either be attributed to an unknown RAF draughtsman (or team of draughtsmen) or a particular company who supplied the seminal watch for the specification. So what Carl is doing is no different to what, for example, IWC or Omega or every manufacture who has ever produced a copy of a military spec watch is doing.
If he were scribing specific stock numbers on to the back of functionally identical watches then I could see the problem. He's not. He bringing together two separate but iconic features of classic military aviation watches to produce a new and rather effective logo for his new brand. In doing this, he's following a very very well trodden:
road of appropriating a selection of features from classic and well loved watches while mixing and reinterpreting them to produce a new and unique logo. In his case, he's actually personally got a connection, just as Eddie has, from actually having served in a branch of the UK military. In both cases, the respect, even love, they have for the armed forces in which they served is bloody obvious. Even if Carl has the poor taste to prefer the 'fuel warning light' charms of the Lightning over the zero altitude delights of the Bucanneer...
So that's my take, but if you want a definitive answer,
I'd ask him. The few direct interactions I have had with him show him to be a very friendly, approachable and straight chap who would delight in explaining his rationale. He's also been a fine contributor on a number of forums and I'd be surprised if he doesn't end up here at some point...
Have a Lancaster