Since 2006, IWC has launched special editions of its Pilot’s Watches in memory of the legendary pilot, poet and adventurer Antoine de Saint- Exupéry. In 2012, the year of the Pilot’s Watches, the Schaffhausen-based company is honouring him with the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph as a special edition in stainless steel and a limited edition of 500 watches in 18-carat red gold. An engraving of his last aircraft, the Lightning P-38, embellishes the case back. For connoisseurs, the tobacco-coloured dial and calfskin strap with its cream-coloured quilted stitching immediately identify the chronograph as a typical “Saint Ex”. The elaborate surface-finishing, featuring polished and silky-matte elements, en-hances the overall quality of the watch’s appearance. This impression is underscored by the sun-pattern finish on the dial. Developed and manufactured exclusively by IWC, the 89361-calibre movement is a masterpiece of technology. It displays long periods of time on a single subdial, thus eliminating the need for a second subdial of the kind often used for aggregate timing, for instance. It is a form of reduction of which the famous Frenchman would no doubt have approved: for, as he once wrote: “Perfection clearly does not arise when one has no more to add but when one can take no more away.”
