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IWC Pilot’s Watches

Posted 3rd May 2011

It’s easy to forget that heavier than air flight has only been possible for just over a century, not that much less than the advent of the motorised car, and that technology has improved a vast amount since. In the early years of aviation, pilots did not have the convenience of modern navigational technology, and so relied on charts, mathematics and mechanical instruments.

IWC’s first pilot’s watch, the mark IX, was developed in 1936 in order to give pilots a better reference than the pocket watches they were carrying at the time. Its focus was legibility, and the large, luminescent markers applied to a black dial made it extremely usable, even in low light conditions, setting the bar for future pilot’s watch designs. The addition of a rotating bezel with a luminous triangle gave pilots a usable reference to track time at a glance.

The Second World War launched the pilot’s watch to the next level, and the vast amount needed by the German Luftwaffe required five brands to be enlisted into making one common design. The watch was modelled around a pocket watch movement and as such was a whopping 55mm, the largest watch IWC have ever made. It had a central seconds hand and came in two styles that mimicked cockpit dials; one with the hours printed around the dial and the other with the minutes printed around the dial and the hours printed on a smaller circle midway round the dial.

These watches were designed to be simple, reliable, anti-magnetic, easy to read and tough, and had details like oversized crowns included for use whilst wearing pilot’s gloves. The design evolved subtly into the IWC mark XI, a smaller but similarly designed watch with a much copied stub-ended minute hand. The addition of a chronograph was included on the 1988 Pilot’s Chronograph, and then the mark XI was surpassed by the mark XII in 1994. This steadily evolved into the current mark XVI, a 39mm elegant piece that still embodies everything that made the original mark IV special.

IWC recognised that there were people who liked the style of the pilot’s watch but also found it to be very plain, so the Spitfire range was created. The basic design remained the same, but the introduction of applied numerals, and layered and turned silver dials gave the watches more eye-catching appeal and made them a dressier alternative to the black dialled mark XVI.

As a nod to the original, IWC launched the Pilot 1936 Handwound, a re-edition of the original mark IX, and visually identical. The closest IWC have come to a re-issue of the Second World War pilot’s watch is the Big Pilot, a seven day power-reserve, 46.2mm watch – not quite the full 55mm, but big enough to make a statement on the wrist.

With so much history surrounding the pilot’s watch it’s easy to see why IWC continue its tradition, but it’s also good that this tradition has evolved to provide a more modern and exciting range within the Spitfire models. For anyone looking for an out-and-out classic, a pilot’s watch is hard to beat.