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The Szanto SZ-2717 Heritage Aviator Watch - Reviewed!
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May 29, 2025
People have been wearing analog watches for hundreds of years, ensuring they always know exactly what time it is. As watches have evolved, styles have come and gone and others have changed to be all form, no function. Aviators need very accurate watches, though, because navigation is often elapsed time vs airspeed. That's the history behind Szanto's lovely SZ-2717 Heritage Aviator watch and its highly accurate movement. Watch aficionado and tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ wore the Szanto Heritage Aviator watch for a few weeks and found much to love about its design and featureset. And one oddity that you'll want to know before you make a purchase decision... Learn more at https://www.SzantoTime.com/
View Video Transcript
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a classic aviator watch let's have a
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closer look Dave Taylor here again and
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I've become a bit of a watch collector
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in the last couple of years so I'm
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always on the lookout for fun and
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stylish watches enter this this is the
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Santo SZ 2712
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heritage aviator watch and there's a lot
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to really like about this classic watch
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design not the least of which is it's a
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44 millimeter face so it's a nice big
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watch for men with bigger wrists and for
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women that just like bigger faces on
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their watches now let me tell you some
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other specs about it it uses a Miata OS
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20 quartz chronograph movement so it's a
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Japanese movement inside which keeps it
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nice and precise it has a Swiss let me
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get the word right super-luminova you
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may which is an illumination system for
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when it's dark and basically it means
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that you can see the hands even in
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darkness which is obviously very
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beneficial has a hardened mineral
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crystal glass on it so I've been wearing
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it for weeks and there's nothing it
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looks absolutely pristine which is
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exactly what you need comes with a 22
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millimeter leather strap and it's a nice
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thick leather strap actually and has the
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signature Santo buckle on it it's a
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pretty big buckle this is definitely a
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fashion statement buckle since it is a
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22 millimeter band you could also put a
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different band on if you like I actually
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really like this one so I'm not planning
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on doing that and here's another really
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great thing it's a hundred millimeter
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water resistant so leather bands aren't
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super water friendly if you're gonna use
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this for a lot of swimming and such I
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would not be recommending this band but
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the watch itself is 100 millimeter 100
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millimeter and a hundred meters is way
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deeper than 100 millimeters that would
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not be very waterproof it's a hundred
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meter water resistant which is really
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nice and has as you can see one of the
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little loops is fixed and then the other
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one moves I find that since I have such
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a big wrist that when I put it on my
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wrist
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the
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there's not really much of the tongue of
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the buckle that goes through so that
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second one
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generally on watches that I own I cut
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this one off and I just use this one if
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you have a smaller wrist than you might
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find that the band goes more around so
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now let's talk about the face and let's
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start with this close-up so you can see
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the face now you'll notice at the top
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they have a triangle and two dots
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apparently that is a very standard
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design for aviator watches and there's
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all sorts of interesting commentary
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online about what that's about
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the basic theory that most people seem
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to have is that it lets you use it as a
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solar compass if you don't have a
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sextant and now it sounds like we're
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like in the 1800s and we're on a boat
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but if you don't have a sextant you can
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point this part at the top pointed at
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the Sun and then there's some way that
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you can read where you are
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geographically by using your watch I
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don't know sounds super fascinating if
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you know leave a comment and tell me how
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that works it's it's cool it's really
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cool no GPS no Smart Watch no Bluetooth
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none of that this is just like a regular
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normal watch that you might have worn 50
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years ago which makes it actually really
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quite cool now there are three sub dials
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you will notice and starting with the
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three o'clock dial it's 24 hour time a
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sweep second hand and time accumulated
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for the chronograph now sweep second
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hand you should say hmm so here's what
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one thing the one thing I'm not a huge
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fan of with this particular aviator
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style is that the large second hand is
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part of the chronograph so it's part of
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the timer right so you can use this for
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timing things and so that means that if
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you aren't timing something
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theoretically your second hand isn't
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moving now for me I look at my watch and
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I see a second hand not moving and I say
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something's wrong it's not working
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anymore but it's designed that way and
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so that little tiny dial is your sweep
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second hand and if as long as that's
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moving your watch is fine my experience
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is that since I don't use this as a
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timer
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in addition to a watch I just let the
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chronograph run all the time so I still
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get that sweep second hand but what's
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weird is then you end up with the two
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second hands actually out of synch and
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they're permanently out of sync of
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course because each takes 60 seconds to
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go around which totally makes sense but
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if you really really pay a lot of
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attention to your watch it might be a
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little bit disconcerting so if you want
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one where the big second hand is
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actually part of your time then this is
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not that watch this is designed
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differently with different functionality
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but it is a nice chronograph and then
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you notice that there's these buttons on
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the side and those are how you actually
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control the chronograph so the top one
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is start stop and the bottom one if it's
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stop is a reset button so super easy to
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be able to time things and then of
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course you get that big second hand
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showing you the elapsed time for 60
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seconds and then the little tiny dials
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showing you how many minutes is actually
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have been elapsed so kind of an
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interesting design but all in all I
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would say for me as long as I keep the
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chronograph running I'm not really
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paying attention to how much time has
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elapsed it looks like I don't know about
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20 minutes and four seconds or something
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like that as long as I don't really pay
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that much attention to it then I get
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that nice big second hand moving as the
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hour and minute hand also move so I
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really like this watch it's a really
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nice style it has a really solid feel to
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it and it's very stylish I have gotten
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compliments on my watch from people
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which is nice and it's not digital it's
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not some nerdy watch although I don't
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know at this point or watches a little
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bit nerdy maybe I don't know but I have
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a lot I'm a big fan there's lots to like
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about this watch so this is the Santo SZ
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27 12 heritage aviator it is a very nice
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analog watch I would encourage you to
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check out all of their product line they
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have a ton of really cool watches
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actually this is Dave Taylor back to
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watching my watch because this is as
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exciting as it gets right back to
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watching my watch
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these I'll catch you in my next video
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[Music]
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