FLIGHT ENGINEERING
iwc’s Iconic Pilot’s Watch collection gets updated with new complications and materials that further distinguish the various sub-lines from one another
The Pilot’s Watch collection is Iwc’s most thematically diverse, and the manufacture has strengthened each sub‑line’s distinctive identity this year by adding new models according to its defining characteristics.
The technical highlight this year is the Big Pilot’s Watch Constant‑force Tourbillon Edition “Le Petit Prince”. Walter Volpers, Iwc’s Associate Director of Product Management, admits that putting a delicate high complication like the constant force tourbillion into the rugged Pilot’s Watch collection may seem like a stretch, but asserts that the context of Le Petit Prince provides a bridge to the collection’s poetic and romantic side, where a tourbillon makes sense. Complications aside, the timepiece also debuts hard gold, a proprietary alloy that’s identical to Iwc’s red gold in composition. What’s different here is its production – by tweaking the process to alter the crystalline structure of the alloy, hard gold is denser and five to 10 times harder than regular red gold.
Material innovations continue elsewhere in the collection with the Top Gun introducing two new materials. The first is Ceratanium, a titanium-based composite that makes its first appearance in the Pilot’s Watch collection in the Pilot’s Watch Double Chronograph Top Gun Ceratanium. The Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Top Gun Edition “Mojave Desert”, on the other hand, is the first time IWC has used sand-coloured ceramic in its watches.
The Spitfi re line has been updated with new materials too, and now has models sporting bronze cases. What’s unique here is the matte fi nishing, which will eventually yield a darker, almost black patina that polished ones cannot attain. That aside, the Spitfi re line will now only be fitted with Iwc’s manufacture movements as a nod to the eponymous Spitfi re fighter plane’s engineering heritage. This naturally includes the brand’s unique Timezoner complication, which powers the new limited- edition Pilot’s Watch Timezoner Spitfi re Edition “The Longest Flight”. The watch functions like a worldtimer on demand, with the time (and date) of the selected city displayed via its aperture at 12 o’clock.