The Pilot’s Watches

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PILOT’S WATCHES FROM IWC WRITE HISTORY

During the pioneering days of aviation, most pilots had to navigate with the help of pocket watches. Wristwatches made especially for aviators were a rare occurrence. By contrast, the first Special Pilot’s Watch, built by IWC in 1936, came with a rugged glass, a rotating bezel with an arrowhead index for keeping track of short periods of time and an antimagnetic escapement together with high-contrast, luminescent hands and numerals.

Pilot's Watches


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From 1940, IWC started producing the Big Pilot’s Watch 52 T. S. C. with an IWC-manufactured movement and large seconds in accordance with military specifications. The case was 55 millimetres in diameter and it weighed 183 grams, making it the largest wristwatch ever produced by IWC. It delivered the precision required of a chronometer and satisfied the technical requirements established back then for navigation or deck watches. Among other things, these included a central hacking seconds to enable pilots and navigators to synchronize their watches with down-to-the-second precision and an extra-long leather strap that could be fastened around a flight suit. With its extremely reductionist design, the dial was clearly organized and leant on the cockpit instrumentation of the legendary Ju 52.

The breakneck pace of technical progress meant that pilots had to keep track of an increasing number of displays in the course of a flight. This was the reason they attached such importance to a clearly laid-out cockpit and optimum legibility even under difficult lighting conditions. Most of the instruments were round with a black background and luminescent hands.

Big Pilot's Watch

—Reference 5009

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—Only the best Navy pilots attain Top Gun status

This instrument look was the inspiration for IWC’s design of the Mark 11 with its hand-wound 89 calibre, produced from 1948 onwards. This, the best-known of the Pilot’s Watches from the Schaffhausen-based manufacturer, was originally built for the Royal Air Force and in service for more than 30 years. Its movement was enclosed in a soft-iron inner case to shield it from magnetic fields. The first specimens of the Mark 11 and the Big Pilot’s Watch still run perfectly to this day and are much sought after, high-quality collector’s items.

In 1988, the launch of the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph maintained the Pilot’s Watch tradition. The Pilot’s Watch Double Chronograph with a split-seconds mechanism and automatic winding followed in 1992. In 1994, the Pilot’s Watch Mark XII – naturally, a state-of-the-art timepiece featuring an automatic movement and a date display – succeeded the Mark 11. That same year, with the unveiling of the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Ceramic, IWC established two trends that were later gladly adopted by the watchmaking industry as a whole: a Pilot’s Watch with an all-black design; and the first-time use of ceramic, which is incredibly difficult to machine, with this particular watch line. In 1998, the Pilot’s Watch UTC, where adjustments to both the time and date are made using the crown, came as IWC’s reaction to greater mobility in an increasingly globalized world.

Pilot's Watch Chronograph Top Gun Miramar

—Reference 3880

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The strap used for the latest TOP GUN Miramar line harks back to the rugged strap designed for the Mark 11 used by the Allied Air Forces

Big Pilot's Watch Perpetual Calendar Top Gun

—Reference 5029

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In 2002, IWC re-established its Big Pilot’s Watch tradition when it unveiled an enormous timepiece with a 7-day movement and Pellaton automatic winding, the design of which leaned unmistakably on its even larger forebear launched in 1940.

In 2003, IWC began producing a Pilot’s Watch series named after the legendary British aircraft, the Spitfire. The outstanding role played in the Battle of Britain by this British fighter and reconnaissance aircraft – of which more were built than any other British plane – secured it lasting cult status in its home country. In its day, the Spitfire was a masterpiece of technology and timeless elegance and became the model on which the eponymous IWC watch family was based. Today, the few Spitfires still airborne are not only welcome guests at air shows all over the world, but also expensive and much sought-after collector’s items.

Since 2006, IWC has celebrated the life’s work of the French poet and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with Pilot’s Watch special editions. Saint-Exupéry was already a legend in his own lifetime. People are equally fascinated by his books, which have been translated into more than 50 languages, and his adventurous life and passion for flying. During the Second World War, he fought as an air-force pilot against the occupying German forces. On 31 July 1944, “Saint-Ex”, as he was fondly referred to by his admirers, climbed into the cockpit of his Lightning P-38 to carry out a reconnaissance mission over occupied France. He never returned. In 2003, wreckage from his Lightning was salvaged from the Mediterranean Sea near Marseilles. In 2012, IWC paid tribute to him with the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition Antoine de Saint Exupéry in stainless steel and in a limited edition of 500 watches in 18-carat red gold. An elaborate engraving of his last aircraft, the Lightning P-38, embellishes the case back.

—Elite pilots in the Top Gun training programme practise formation flying

In 2007, the Pilot’s Watch Double Chronograph Edition TOP GUN joined the IWC Pilot’s Watch squadron. It takes its name from a special training course offered by the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, the “Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor”, better known by the legendary accolade “Top Gun”. Anyone who completes this course is part of a tiny elite comprising the best-trained, fastest-reacting and most-courageous pilots in the world. During “dogfights” – air-to-air combat calling for spectacular manoeuvres such as the ones seen on film – both man and material are subject to gigantic gravitational forces. The pilot briefly undergoes the equivalent of up to nine times the acceleration of gravity. During regular centrifuge sessions, the pilots have to withstand 9 g for a never-ending 15 seconds without losing consciousness as their own weight increases to almost 600 kilograms. The demands placed on the young pilots are no less exhausting than those on the materials that propel them above the clouds at supersonic speeds – materials that cannot afford to show any sign of weakness. This, too, is the reason why the designers chose two materials that IWC was one of the first manufacturers in the world to use in watchmaking: high-tech ceramic for the case and titanium for the case back and controls.

IWC Schaffhausen has declared 2012 as another year of the Pilot’s Watches. With five new models at a stroke, the TOP GUN collection establishes itself as an independent line in the IWC Pilot’s Watch family. Inspired by the spirit of the first Top Gun flight school in Miramar, California, two models in the TOP GUN collection are the first to feature an authentic military-style design: the Big Pilot’s Watch TOP GUN Miramar and the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph TOP GUN Miramar. The unusual division into an external chapter ring and an inner hour circle harks back to IWC’s long tradition in the manufacture of deck watches. The shimmering metallic grey of the ceramic case and the matte anthracite of the dial are reminiscent of the precision instruments used in aviation, while the colours beige, grey and green reinforce the desired look. The green textile strap is likewise a reminder of the rugged wristband found on the legendary Mark 11.

The Big Pilot’s Watch TOP GUN combines the clear-cut instrument look of its 1940s predecessor with 21st-century technology. The Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar TOP GUN has an impressive range of sophisticated technological features that include a perpetual calendar with four-digit year display, a moon phase display and a 7-day power reserve. With protection against magnetic fields and a front glass secured against displacement by drops in pressure, the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph TOP GUN is ideal for the most-demanding airborne manoeuvres.

Spitfire Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month

—Reference 3791

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Spitfire
—Preparing a Supermarine Spitfire Mark IX for take-off; this was one of the most-produced versions of the famous British fighter aircraft
PILOT’S WATCH CHRONOGRAPH EDITION ANTOINE DE SAINT EXUPÉRY

—Reference 3878

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With modernized designs, new features and IWC-manufactured movements, the Spitfire fleet is preparing for a spectacular vertical take-off. The Spitfire Pilot’s Watches have always been particularly stylish, as further confirmed now with the use of 18-carat red gold, elaborate surface finishing and dials with a sun-pattern finish.

The Spitfire Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month takes an unusual place within the 2012 Pilot’s Watch collection. Its perpetual calendar with big digital date and month displays together with a leap year display is one of the trailblazing technical developments to come from IWC Schaffhausen. The Spitfire Chronograph is now fitted with an IWC-manufactured movement.

The IWC Pilot’s Watch Classics collection features five models in the authentic cockpit-style design. The most conspicuous change compared with their predecessors – with the exception of the Big Pilot’s Watch – is the uniform vertical triple date display at “3 o’clock”. Its shape emphatically underscores the traditional instrument look. The Big Pilot’s Watch retains its familiar looks and the highly efficient IWC-manufactured 51111 calibre. Compared with its predecessor, the Mark XVI, the Pilot’s Watch Mark XVII is 2 millimetres larger at 41 millimetres. With its red design features, which were introduced in 2012, the dial of the Pilot’s Watch Double Chronograph is even more attractive, and, thanks to a larger case – now 46 millimetres – significantly more legible. The stainless-steel case of the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph has increased by 1 millimetre to 43. The Pilot’s Watch Worldtimer follows on from the success of the UTC Pilot Watches. It has a 24-hour ring that enables the wearer to read off the time in all 24 zones, including Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). The city ring features the names of 23 locations around the world, each of which represents a time zone. The dial shows local time, which can be adjusted forwards or backwards in one-hour steps and remains correct even after crossing the International Date Line.

The metal bracelet is fitted with a fine-adjustment clasp, which was developed in 2012. Both the pin buckle and folding clasp are slightly bolder, in order to match the larger case diameter.

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Further Exploration

From the collection

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Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month

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