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THE AVIATOR'S WATCH
PILOT'S WATCH CHRONG-AUTOMATIC
EDITION ANTOINE DE SAINT EXUPERY
Limited series of 250
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A limited, stunningly beautiful special edition of the IWC
Pilot’s Chronograph commemorates the French author and aviation
pioneer Antoine de Saint Exupéry, who published his novel “Night
Flight” 75 years ago.
He was called
“Saint Ex” by the Americans because they were unable to
pronounce his name. On 31 July 1944, Major Antoine de Saint
Exupéry took off in a Lockheed P38 Lightning from a US airbase
on Corsica on a reconnaissance flight over his occupied homeland
of France. He would never return. Legends have since become
woven around the author and aviation pioneer, the father of the
“Little Prince”, who is revered as a national hero in France.
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| Many years before,
Saint Exupéry had been involved in building up the
Aéroposta Argentina airmail company operating from
Buenos Aires, which was the first functional airmail
network in that part of the world. Its speciality
was domestic and transatlantic overnight airmail
services, which gave it the upper hand over ships
and trains in the race against time. It was hard
work and a constant struggle against bad weather and
heavy thunderstorms in aircraft that were initially
scarcely suitable for the purpose. The ensuing
drama, as one of these mail planes lost its struggle
against the limited time and the forces of nature,
is described in the novel “Night Flight”, which
Saint Exupéry brought back to Europe in 1931. |
   
| The Swiss watch
manufacture IWC Schaffhausen, which has been
constructing professional pilot’s watches since the
mid-1930s, has chosen the anniversary of the
publication of the novel as the occasion for a
special edition of its new mechanical Pilot’s
Chronograph. The Special Edition Antoine de Saint
Exupéry will be limited to exactly 1,931 watches –
with a tobacco-coloured dial, special protection
against magnetic fields, an automatic winding
system, aggregate time recording up to 12 hours, and
a case-back engraving that portrays the flying hero.
The 1,931 examples of this distinctive watch will
comprise 1,630 examples in stainless steel, 250 in
rose gold, 50 in white gold and a single example –
not for sale – in a platinum case. The platinum
watch will be auctioned together with a first
edition of “Vol de nuit” in French for the benefit
of the “Vol de Nuit /Vuelo Nocturno” association.
This association takes care of neglected children in
Argentina, a country which was very important for
Antoine de Saint Exupéry. |
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