The Pilot’s Watch collection gets an update with new complications and materials

The Pilot’s Watch collection is IWC’S most thematically diverse, and this year the manufacture has strengthened each sub- line’s distinctive identity with a range of new models.

Technically, the highlight is surely the Big Pilot’s Watch Constant- Force Tourbillon Edition “Le Petit Prince”. According to the company’s Walter Volpers, the placement of such a delicate complication as a constant- force tourbillon in a rugged Pilot’s Watch might have seemed like a stretch, but Le Petit Prince provides the poetic and romantic context in which it makes sense. The timepiece also debuts hard gold, a proprietary alloy that’s similar in composition to the brand’s red gold, though by tweaking the process to alter the alloy’s crystalline structure, hard gold is denser and five to 10 times harder than regular red gold.