Beau Garrett didn’t set out to start a watch brand. He set out to solve a problem pilots kept complaining about at FBOs. What he built instead is a company that earned a design patent, a Wright Brothers partnership, and a flight school affiliate program, all from a $2,000 Facebook survey.
He sat down with Tim Jedrek on The Aviation Business Podcast to tell the whole story. Here’s what flight school owners need to hear.
A Career Built in the Cockpit
Beau is a commercial pilot based in Franklin, Tennessee. He cut his teeth the way most professional pilots do, as a CFI. But his path was anything but typical.
His first job out of the gate was teaching IFS, Initial Flight Screening, for a school that held the contract with the Air Force and Navy. He was putting military officers in the left seat for their first 15 to 20 hours before they headed off to their respective branches. From there, he went corporate, flying for a bank out of PDK, Peachtree DeKalb Airport in Atlanta, for several years.
Then 2008 hit.
The Crisis That Changed Everything
The financial crash didn’t just shake the economy. It grounded careers. Beau’s bank shut down its flight department around 2010, right as he and his wife were starting their family.
“The airlines weren’t hiring,” he told Tim. “I could not find an aviation job to save my life.”
Rather than wait it out, Beau went back to school at night and earned his MBA. He came out of that program and landed consulting work, including clients in aviation that he says most people in the industry would recognize. That work taught him how to navigate business decisions, spot real opportunities, and stay humble in front of the market.
It also gave him the confidence to finally act on an idea he had been sitting on for years.
The $2,000 Survey That Started It All
The idea for a pilot’s watch came from years of hangar talk. Beau kept noticing the same thing at FBOs and flight lines: pilots loved talking about watches, but almost nobody wore the expensive, complex pilot watches the industry kept producing.
“Very rarely, if ever, did I see a guy wearing a really nice multi-thousand dollar pilot watch in those environments,” he said.
So instead of designing something in a silo, he went to a local airport in Middle Tennessee with his iPhone, filmed a short intro video, and launched a paid Facebook survey. He spent about $2,000 in ads. Seven weeks later, he had over 1,800 responses, with more than 1,100 respondents leaving their email and asking to be kept updated.
That list became his first customer base. That data became his product roadmap.
What 1,800 Pilots Actually Asked For
The top request by a wide margin was simple: an easy, at-a-glance comparison between local time and Zulu time, also called GMT. Not a fourth hand. Not a digital complication. Just a clean, readable display.
Beau’s answer was the Discovery watch, featuring a crescent-shaped window showing Zulu time alongside standard analog hands showing local time. The design is distinct enough that Call Sign earned a design patent on it.
“The cockpit doesn’t fit on your wrist,” Beau said. “And it’s not supposed to.”
Sun ‘n Fun and the Wright Brothers
The brand’s first big inflection point came at Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland, Florida. Beau was nervous. It was the first time he had faced the public with his product.
The show ended up changing everything.
On the last day, a man named Ken Botts stopped by the Call Sign booth and spent 15 minutes asking about the brand. Then he asked Beau if he would ever consider a licensing partnership. Beau asked who he was representing.
The answer was the Wright family.
That conversation led to months of partnership discussions, a research trip through historical archives in Dayton, Ohio, and the Wrights of Passage collection, three limited-edition watches honoring Wilbur, Orville, their sister Katharine, and their father, Bishop Milton Wright. Each piece ships in a wooden chest handcrafted by Gerstner and Sons in Ohio, the same toolbox maker Orville Wright used in his own workshop.
A portion of proceeds goes directly to the Wright Brothers Family Foundation.
From Bravo Golf to Call Sign
The brand launched under the name Bravo Golf, a play on Beau’s initials spelled out in the phonetic alphabet. It worked well inside aviation. Outside of it, the name kept getting mistaken for a golf brand.
“The number of times we were confused with a golf brand is staggering,” Beau said.
After expanding to events like Barrett-Jackson and the Palm Beach Boat Show, and after bringing on new partners who raised the same concern, Beau made the call to rebrand. The new name, Call Sign, fit on multiple levels. Military customers were already engraving their call signs on the case back of their Discovery watches. The concept of a call sign, something earned, not chosen, matched exactly where the brand was headed.
“You build it up in your head as a founder,” Beau said. “But there are really no sacred cows. You have to stay humble, keep learning, and keep moving.”
A Marketing Strategy Built on Boots and Booths
Beau was direct with Tim about where Call Sign’s revenue actually comes from: in-person events, by a wide margin.
This year’s show calendar includes Sun ‘n Fun, Oshkosh, JCK Las Vegas, Barrett-Jackson Columbus, Telluride in September, and the Pacific Air Show in Huntington Beach in October. He described it as a band tour. One city to the next, every time.
“There’s really no substitute,” he said. “Relationships happen. Collaborations happen. You just get in front of people.”
His digital strategy runs top of funnel through Google search, then Meta and Instagram, then email, then to the website. He is working to close the gap between in-person and online revenue. But he credits the grassroots start, a paid survey, a warm email list, and a booth at Sun ‘n Fun, as the foundation that made everything else possible.
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The Free Program for Flight Schools
One of the most useful moments of the episode came near the end, when Beau introduced Call Sign’s affiliate program for flight schools.
Here is how it works. Flight schools sign up for free through the affiliate link at mycallsign.com. Call Sign designs and prints a custom co-branded brochure with the school’s logo and ships it at no cost. Every time a student from that school purchases a watch, the school earns a commission and the student receives an exclusive discount not available anywhere else.
Beau was clear about who the brand is for. “I started this brand because I wanted to be there on the pilot’s journey. I want to help commemorate those moments.”
The Discovery watch can be engraved with a student’s Airman certificate number, tail number, solo date, or checkride pass date. For a student who just passed their private pilot checkride, that is a milestone worth marking.
One Piece of Advice for Every New Pilot
Tim closed with a question for Beau’s younger self. If he could go back to age 17, standing at the start of flight training, what would he say?
“Don’t do anything else,” Beau said. “Focus on your private pilot exclusively for four to five months. Don’t think about friendships, relationships, anything. Just get it done.”
His reasoning is practical. Weather, maintenance, and scheduling are always working against you. Add a job, a family, or a business to that list and a PPL that should take five months can take two years and cost twice as much.
“Once you get your private,” he said, “everything else gets a little bit easier.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Call Sign watches? Call Sign is an American aviation watch brand founded by commercial pilot Beau Garrett. The brand makes analog timepieces designed for pilots, including the Discovery series featuring a patented crescent Zulu time display and optional engraving for pilot certificate numbers, tail numbers, and checkride dates.
What was Bravo Golf? Bravo Golf was the original name of the brand, a play on founder Beau Garrett’s initials in the phonetic alphabet. The company rebranded to Call Sign in 2025 after expanding beyond aviation into broader markets where the name created confusion.
How does the flight school affiliate program work? Flight schools sign up free at mycallsign.com, receive a custom co-branded brochure at no cost, and earn a commission each time a student purchases a watch. Students from affiliated schools receive an exclusive discount not offered elsewhere.
Where can I buy a Call Sign watch? All watches are available at mycallsign.com. Call Sign is also exploring retail partnerships and a potential retail location in Franklin, Tennessee.
Beau Garrett built a brand that pilots actually trust by listening to them first. His story is a masterclass in community-driven marketing that every flight school owner can learn from.
Listen to the full episode on The Aviation Business Podcast and sign up for the Call Sign affiliate program at mycallsign.com.