Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition “Antoine de Saint Exupéry”

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Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition “Antoine de Saint Exupéry” - SIHH 2016 : IWC
With the new Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition “Antoine de Saint Exupéry”, IWC pays tribute to the extraordinary life’s work of a great humanist and aviation pioneer.

There can be no doubt that watches played an important role in the life of aviation pioneer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. During his spell as an airmail courier in Patagonia, for ex­ample, which he describes in his novel he explains the desperate struggle of an airmail pilot against limited flying time, but also against natural forces, technical problems and woeful communications.

Since the begin­ning of the partnership between IWC Schaffhausen and the Fondation Antoine de Saint-Exupéry over 10 years ago in 2005, the tobacco brown dial and calfskin strap have es­tablished themselves as the hallmarks of the “Antoine de Saint Exupéry” editions. The Fondation Antoine de Saint-Exupéry helps young people worldwide who are growing up in difficult and often hostile circumstances. Part of the proceeds from sales goes to the foundation and its partner organizations.

Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition “Antoine de Saint Exupéry”

The Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition “Antoine de Saint Exupéry” is packed with ingenious technical fea­tures. The perpetual calendar shows not only the lunar cycles but also the seconds, minutes, hours, date, day, month and year in four digits. Mechanically programmed, all the displays are automatically advanced and will take into account different month lengths and even all the leap days in the Gregorian calendar until 2100, without the need for a single correction. Every hundred years (2100, 2200, etc.), the leap year that would normally occur is omitted (29 February 2100, for instance), which means that on 1 March, a watchmaker will need to adjust the calendar manually. If the watch has not been used for some time and has stopped, the displays are advanced together using the crown. Even the perpetual moon phase display keeps the promise of its name and will need to be adjusted by only one day after 577.5 years.

This is the first time that the IWC-manufactured 52610-calibre movement from the new IWC 52000-calibre family has been used in a Pilot’s Watch. Twin barrels supply the power needed to provide 7 days’ running time and to drive the additional functions and dis­plays. When the watch is worn normally, the bidirectional Pellaton winding with its new ceramic pawls generates maximum tension in the spring. The power reserve display, which is combined with the date display at “3 o’clock” on the dial, slowly moves anticlockwise from 1 to 7 (days), indicating that the movement is fully wound.

Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition “Antoine de Saint Exupéry”

A glance through the transparent sapphire-glass back re­veals the movement’s intricate design. We clearly see the new features in the calibre family, such as the twin barrels, the enhanced Pellaton winding with its practically wear-free components made of black and white ceramic, the blued screws and the various decorative polished finishes on the bridges. The rotor is made of solid 18-carat red gold and bears the engraved inscription “Edition Saint Exupéry”. The additional “One out of 750” is an indication that the special edition is limited to just 750 watches. Prominent at the centre of the rotor is a medallion with an initial A., as in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The 46-millimetre stainless-steel case is water-resistant to 6o metres and the glass secured against displacement by drops in air pressure. The Big Pilot’sWatch Perpetual Calendar Edition “Antoine de Saint Exupéry” features a brown Santoni calfskin strap.

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