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HOME TO A LEGEND
THE NEW SPITFIRE COLLECTION
| Pilot’s watches
are a tradition at IWC Schaffhausen. IWC launched
its first pilot’s watch in 1936 with the “special
watch for pilots”. The Spitfire, one of the
most impressive aircraft in the history of aviation,
which stands out for its elegance and its supreme
technical competence, also made its maiden flight in
the same year, exactly 70 years ago. These two
legends meet again at IWC – in the new Spitfire
pilot’s watches collection.
Technically advanced
watches are a strong point of IWC Schaffhausen – in
the water with the Aquatimer, on land with the
Ingenieur models and in the air with the extensive
range of pilot’s watches. The latter comprises the
Classic collection, with dials in the traditional
instrument look, and a more elegant collection,
whose appearance is just as striking as the aircraft
from which the watches take their name: the
Spitfire. |
    
Tribute to a
legend
The collection is a tribute to a British fighter
aircraft that makes the hearts of ambitious pilots
race. Developed in the mid-1930s, the Spitfire was
an aerodynamic masterpiece, a hightech machine of
its age, and to this day is still one of the
much-admired stars at air shows throughout the
world. The name Spitfire is also a tradition at IWC
Schaffhausen; a special edition of watches bearing
this name, limited to 1,000 individually numbered
pieces, was issued in the year 2000. The basis for
this special model was the Mark XV, which might be
described as the grandson of the legendary Mark 11
which saw service from 1948 onwards as an official
pilot’s watch with the Royal Air Force. This was
followed in 2003 by an entire Spitfire range, which
has been available ever since in parallel with the
Classic range of IWC pilot’s watches. |
    
There are four
models – an Chrono-Automatic, the UTC watch with its
two time zones, the Mark XVI and the new Midsize –
in the new IWC Spitfire range, which owes a great
deal to the outstanding technology and restrained
elegance of the single-engined aircraft. Just as the
panels on aircraft are usually attached to the frame
with rivets, the numerals and indices are riveted to
the dial in the new Spitfire watches. The
appliquéd details are grouped around the raised
centre of the dial, which is embossed in the truest
sense of the word. If you look at the watch, not
directly from the front but rather at an oblique
angle, you will get an impression of the
three-dimensional aspect of the dial, the surface of
which has been rhodium-plated to produce a silky
shimmer from which it derives its restrained
elegance. The impression of this is
reinforced in the chronograph by the recessed
totalizers. The new hands, which resemble propeller
blades, are completely coated with luminous material
and offer outstanding readability
both day and night. |
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