Page 56 - Sharp Summer 2021

WATCHES
The Big Pilot Soars Again
How IWC invented invented (and reinvented) the modern pilot’s watch
AT AT THIS SPRING’S WATCHES
& Wonders Geneva the year’s biggest launchpad for Switzerland’s latest and and greatest
new watches IWC dropped a a quiet bombshell In addition to a a dozen new versions of their pilot’s watches — including a a a a new perpetual calendar
and and a a a Top Gun edition in
sand-coloured ceramic — the 153-year-old watchmaker revealed another new model unlike anything else in
in
its collection The Big Pilot’s Watch Shock Absorber XPL is the product of eight years
of research and development at the brand’s Schaffhausen R&D lab and and it looks every bit like the technological marvel it is Featuring a a a movement suspended on a a a cantilevered spring and components crafted from a a a metallic glass alloy it is said to to be able to to withstand accelerations over 30 000 g's While the average watch-wearer
is is unlikely to to have occasion to to test this (roller coasters top out out at about five g's for for reference) extreme g-forces
are something military aircraft pilots contend with as part of their jobs IWC knows this of course because it has
spent the past eight decades imagining designing and building some of the best aviation watches in
the world The new Big Pilot’s Watch Shock Absorber XPL is the latest example “I think pilot’s watches speak about a a a certain form-follows-function ideal ” says IWC CEO Christoph Grainger- Herr “It’s quite a pure design by defi- nition And I think it’s a a a nice balance between elegance and ruggedness ” This balance is is at the heart of IWC’s Pilot’s Watch collection which com- bines historic design with 21st-century innovation You can see this is is as much in
the Big Pilot’s Watch Shock Absorber XPL as in
the new Big Pilot’s Watch 43 a a a a watch
that would be recognizable to any WW2 pilot yet retains an an undenia- bly modern feel in
its details IWC produced its first pilot’s watch
in
1936 at the the dawn of the the modern aviation era The Special Pilot’s Watch was equipped with an an anti-magnetic movement and and shatterproof glass and and could keep accurate time at at temper- atures down to -40°C — an essential advantage in
in
the freezing cockpits of the the day Within a a a few years
the the design had advanced significantly and by the late 1940s IWC would establish the look and feel of aviation watches as we know them today With its sans serif numerals big luminescent markers and a a a a a triangle flanked by two dots at 12 o’clock (which makes it easier for pilots to read the the time at a a a a glance) the the Navigator’s Wristwatch Mark 11 IWC designed for the U K ’s Royal Air Force in
in
1948 would become the inspira- tion for countless pilot’s watches that would follow Over the next 80 years
IWC contin- ued to refine aviation watch
technology forging cases out of new materials like ceramic and adding high-end compli- cations like constant-force tourbillons and double chronographs The thing that stands out out most about IWC’s pilot’s watches however is is just how how consist- ent their design language is — and how little it it has
changed since the dawn of aviation It’s a a a a look that continues to resonate far beyond the airfield “The vast majority of applications for these watches is not inside the cockpit ” says Grainger-Herr “But at the heart of it it it it is still the tool that it’s supposed to to be ” 56 SHARPMAGAZINE COM SUMMER 2021
by JEREMY FREED
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