TAG Heuer

chippyfly
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6 minute holding patterns

That makes more sense MTF but not for a direct approach and landings. I have never come across such a specific stop-watch as shown here but in a former life as a transport pilot we used to carry out 6 minute holds (it still happens of course) over aerodrome and air corridor radio beacons awaiting in a queue for descent to land.

The holding pattern consists of flying an accurately flown (allowing for local wind direction and speed at the aeroplane's height) 6 minutes oval loop aligned in a defined direction with two parallel opposing straight legs for 2 minutes each and two 180º turns at each end of 1 minute each, all calculated to pass over the beacon at a precise time.  Quite difficult in strong winds where the pilot had to mentally adjust headings for drift and add and subtract seconds to the turns and to the straight legs when allowing for the wind direction and speed to make sure each "pass" over the beacon is at a precise time.   Each turn was flown at a rate of 3º per second (called a rate-one turn). 12 minutes duration would allow for two "holds" if required but sometimes more holds are required when air traffic is busy in perhaps bad weather. Sometimes holds are also used to delay/separate aircraft flying along air corridors to keep a minimum flight separation at particular flight levels.  Now with GPS the "holding point" is defined as coordinates etc, but the same principle applies.

An ordinary "pilot" watch is usually sufficient although some pilots use a chronograph.   Some aircraft had a suitable clock on the instrument panel. On a Piper 28 I used to share privately there was a handy simple bracket to hold a stop-watch on the control wheel.

Best

Clive