WIRED
Time-Tested
Tradition
IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN Spitfire Pilot
IWC Schaffhausen’s latest Spitfire pilot’s watch is a stylish nod to WWII aviation that belies its cutting edge horology. By Govind Dhar
NOV — DEC 2012
or centuries, the blue of the open skies has proven irresistible to man. From commanding the very first steel bird as its pilot and master, to tearing toward the stratosphere in rocket-propelled aircraft, the seduction of flight has driven man to challenge the fundamentals of nature. With sheer imagination and the technology at hand, man has continued to marry form and function to fly farther, faster and higher. Of course, to reach the limits of their imagination, engineers and pilots have relied on a few pieces of mechanical poetry with their enduring transmutations to see aviation and aerial flight through to fruition. One indispensable tool in that armoury has been the humble pilot’s watch. “Flying revolutionised the world of
technology as much as that of wristwatches,” says Christian Knoop, Creative Director at IWC. “Increasingly high altitudes with extremes of cold and temperature fluctuation together with instruments and engines that generated powerful magnetic fields represented an immense challenge.”
The pilot’s watch has long been that superlative attention-grabber of wearable art that gets aficionados all a-chatter. Everything from the number of complications its creators have been able to stuff into it – and whether the wearer knows how to read them all – to the stylistic elements and accents that make the timepiece stand out in a crowd makes a pilot’s watch one of those must-have pieces for the watch collection. Traditionally, the pilot’s
watch is often distinguished by being somewhat larger of dial and crown, offering anything from basic complications such as chronograph configurations, to perpetual calendars and world time indicators. Depending on the wearer however, a watch’s utility whilst flying; how limited it might be in edition; or if a new complication has been added to the watch, make a particular model all the more sought after. The Spitfire As the perfect case-in-point, this year’s pilot series from the International Watch Company (IWC) was showcased as the centrepiece of their newest collections for 2012. Dubbed ‘the year of the high-fliers’, IWC unveiled no less than 14 pilot variants at the Baselworld