IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN PAYS
TRIBUTE TO SAINT-EXUPÉRY’S
LAST FLIGHT
Schaffhausen, 11 August
2014 –
70 years ago,
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry took off on a reconnaissance flight over France and never returned. Now,
IWC Schaffhausen commemorates the last flight of the celebrated pilot and author with three special
limited editions, thereby strengthening its longstandingpartnership with Saint-Exupéry’s descendants. Moreover, all proceeds from the sale of the
Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition “The Last Flight” in platinum at an auction later this year will benefit the charitable
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Youth Foundation.
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A reconnaissance flight over the South of France on 31 July
1944 brought an abrupt end to
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s career and passion for flying. After taking off from a military base in Corsica, his Lockheed P-38 Lightning vanished without trace.
Saint-Exupéry had already been discharged from the air force because of his age. He was also slightly overweight, and too big for the aircraft’s narrow cockpit. Despite all that, he was a patriot and an author constantly in search of adventure and decided to embark on the reconnaissance flight. Somewhere close to Toulon he was spotted by the German Luftwaffe. Speculation as to where he came down only ended in
1998, when a fisherman found a bracelet belonging to the French national hero in his net while fishing off the shore of Marseille. Pieces of wreckage were later recovered from the sea and identified as parts of Saint-Exupéry’s aircraft.
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The
German pilot who all those years ago had unwittingly shot down one of his favourite authors recently met the French aviator’s family for the first time. “Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s passion for flying guided his life and work, and ultimately determined his fate. Since we began our cooperation with his descendants in
2006,
IWC has unveiled a series of special limited editions of its
Pilot’s Watch that have kept the memory of this extraordinarypilot and aviation pioneer alive to this day,” says
IWC CEO Georges Kern. This year, the
Schaffhausenbased watch manufacturer marks the 70th anniversary of
Saint-Exupéry’s last flight with three special editions featuringsilicon nitride ceramic cases: the
Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition “The Last Flight” is available with a crown and push-buttons in titanium, red gold or platinum,each in a limited series.
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A tradition of commitment
to social causes
In November, Sotheby’s Geneva will auction one of the platinum models. As on many occasions in the past,
IWC will donate the entire proceeds to the
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Youth Foundation, which champions the great Frenchman’s humanitarian philosophy and is involved in projects aimed at improving literacy among children and young people across the world. On this occasion, the money is destined for the Hospital Pequeno Príncipe in Curitiba. Brazil’s largest children’s hospital is a respected centre specializing in highly complex heart operations, organand bone transplants and cancer treatment, and is able to count on the help of over 500 volunteers. Thanks to
IWC’s contribution, the hospital’s recreational area will soon have a library to offer its young patients. Access to good literature should encourage them to take pleasure in reading and culture, and to find a constructive way of spending their free time.
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Helping young people
to help themselves
“Our sense of social responsibility reflects what happens in our own company,” explains
Georges Kern. “We want to feel sure that our commitment is conducive to progress and positive development. In the Saint-Exupéry Foundation, we support an organization that has a huge international network and does an incredible amount for disadvantaged children with its local projects. Together, we help them to carve out a future for themselves and to play an active role in society.” As recently as November 2013, a unique timepiece from the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer came under the hammer at Sotheby’s Geneva. The proceeds of CHF 173,000 were used to open two school buildings ncluding a library in Cambodia, which offer an education to 1,200 children.
IWC Schaffhausen, well known for its almost 80 years’ experience in the manufacture of Pilot’s Watches, decided to pursue a partnership with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s descendants due to their many shared values. They both share a passion for flying, technology and engineering, and have a pronounced sense of social responsibility.
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A wa tch to commemorate
the final flight
Since the very first one, all
IWC special editions in honour of the legendary
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry have featured the same tobacco colour as the flying suit he used to wear. While this elegant colour was restricted to the dial in earliermodels, the new
Pilot’s Watches in “The Last Flight” Chronograph Edition are much more consistent, with a brown ceramic case made from silicon nitride, a brown dial and a calfskin strap in the same colour. The titanium pushbuttons, crown and case back provide a pleasing contrast on the
1,700 pieces in the
limited edition (Ref.
IW388004), a further
170 watches (Ref.
IW388006) have eye-catching red gold highlights and
17 timepieces (Ref.
IW388005) feature a crown, buttons and case back in platinum. The rugged case, made of high-performance ceramic silicon nitride, has several outstanding properties such as enormousheat resistance, unusual hardness, corrosion resistance and very low wear and tear.
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The sense of quality emanated by this model is underscored by the elaborate sun-pattern finish on the dial. The sapphire glass has an antireflective coating on both sides and is secured against drops in air pressure, while the case is water-resistant to 6 bar. Developed and manufactured by
IWC entirely in
Schaffhausen, the
89361 calibre is a technical masterpiece. Stop times up to 12 hours are clearly displayed on an analogue hour and minute counter on a subdial. The back of the watch is engraved with a special image which commemorates the 70th anniversary of
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s last flight. The timepiece itself is packaged in a leather case embossed with the same motif as the exquisite engraving on the case back, and is accompanied by a r otor-shaped letteropener in stainless steel. The two models, with crown and push-buttons in precious metals, also come with a print by French artist Manolo Chrétien on duraluminium in a brown leather frame.
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Click on the mouse wheel to see the large size .. BIG FOTO
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Technical Specifications
Model: PILOT’s Chronograph "The Last Flight" Limited Edition
Features
* Mechanical chronograph movement
* Self-winding
* Date display
* Stopwatch function with hours, minutes and seconds
* Hour and minute counters, combined in a totalizer at 12 o’clock
* Flyback function
* Small hacking seconds
* Screw-in crown
* Special engraving on case back in memory of
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s last flight.
Movement
IWC-manufactured calibre 89361
Frequency 28,800 A/h / 4 Hz
Jewels 38
Power reserve 68 h
Winding automatic
Watch
Materials brown silicon nitride ceramic case, brown dial, brown calfskin strap with quilted stitching, pin buckle
- Ref. IW388004: black counters, push-buttons, crown and case back in
titanium, hands and appliqués rhodium-plated with Super-LumiNova®*
coating,
limited to
1,700 watches
- Ref. IW388006: red-gold-plated counters, push-buttons, crown and
case back in 18-carat red gold, hands and appliqués gold-plated with
Super-LumiNova®* coating,
limited to
170 watches
- Ref. IW388005: rhodium-plated counters, push-buttons, crown and
case back in platinum, hands and appliqués rhodium-plated with
Super-LumiNova®* coating,
limited to
17 watches
Glass
Sapphire, convex, antireflective coating on both sides, withstands drops in air pressure
Water-resistant 6 bar
Diameter 46 mm
Case height 16.5 mm
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IWC Schaffhausen
Uwe Liebminger
Department Manager Public Relations
Mobile +41 (0)79 957 72 52
E-mail
uwe.liebminger@iwc.com
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