IWC - Pilot’s Watch Spitfire Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month NEW
The Spitfire Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month is the first Pilot’s Watch launched by IWC
Schaffhausen to feature a perpetual calendar, a digital date and month
display, and an innovative stopwatch display. The IWC-manufactured 89800
calibre provides a suitable drive.
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If the pilot of one of the few remaining airworthy Spitfires reports
that his machine is ready to land, it may well happen that the tower
asks him to go into a loop over the airfield. The “legend of the skies”
has long fascinated both pilots and aircraft enthusiasts from all over
the world. Is it the elegant silhouette with the elliptical wing shape?
Or perhaps the throaty roar of the 2050-h.p. Merlin engine? Probably
both of them and much more as well. Air Marshal Cliff Spink, one of the
last Spitfire pilots, put it this way: “No aircraft I have ever flown
has given me such a strong sensation of sitting in the cockpit of a
technological masterpiece as the Spitfire has.”
Click on the mouse wheel to see the large size ...BIG FOTO
Elegance, technological brilliance and a high performance drive are also the hallmarks of the new
IWC Pilot’s Watch, whose name was inspired by the legendary propeller-driven aircraft:
the
Spitfire Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month (Ref.
379103).
Click on the mouse wheel to see the large size ...BIG FOTO
Inspired by cockpit instrumentation
The multiple
displays and complications on the dial of the Spitfire Perpetual
Calendar Digital Date-Month underscore the prominent position it holds
within the Pilot’s Watch family from
IWC. They
admittedly total below the 79 instruments found in the Spitfire’s
cockpit, but they still represent an unusually large number for a
pilot’s watch. Despite this, the dial is well balanced and very neatly
arranged. This is the first
IWC Pilot’s Watch
to feature a digital display showing the date and month in large
numerals. It was inspired by the cockpit instrumentation used during the
pioneering days of modern aviation that showed vital data, such as
altitude, in figures. Digital displays also have a long-standing
tradition at
IWC.
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Well over 100 years ago, the
Schaffhausen-based manufacturer was integrating the Pallweber system
into the first watches with digital hour and minute displays. This put
IWC
way ahead of its time. While many people today prefer an analogue
display for the time, numerals have established themselves as the
standard solution for the date. Nevertheless, in the case of a
mechanical watch, it takes considerable technical expertise – and a
sophisticated wheel train – to translate the day and month into the
digital format seen on the dial.
Quick-action switch provides power when needed
The
latest version of the Spitfire watch with a perpetual calendar features
an additional small window at “6 o’clock”, which displays the 4-yearly
leap year cycle digitally. In
2012 this will include a leap day, the
29th of February. Naturally the perpetual calendar takes this anomaly in
its stride, and the wearer has no need to think about it. Because of
the three digital displays, up to five different discs may need to be
advanced synchronously without having a noticeable influence on the
watch’s accuracy. The energy required to do this is generated by a quick
action switch designed specifically for this purpose. Every night, when
the date display moves forward, it taps a little of the energy, stores
it and then discharges it precisely at the end of the month when the
date and month discs advance, and at the end of the year when the leap
year disc also needs to be advanced. The perpetual calendar can be set
easily using the crown. It will not require intervention until 2100, a
year that breaks with the conventional 4-year cycle and will not be a
leap year.
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But the
Spitfire Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month brings
another very special feature to the Pilot’s Watch family. While stopped
times up to 60 seconds are shown conventionally by the central
chronograph hand, the hours and minutes recorded by the stopwatch
can be read off on the totalizer at “12 o’clock” as easily as reading
the time.
Thanks to the flyback function, the chronograph can be reset
to zero without having to be stopped first. This function too, has its origins in the aviation of the
1930s and
1940s when a
pilot might have to fly certain curved radii by time or abandon a
manoeuvre and start a new one immediately.
IWC - Manufactured Calibre 89800
To turn this innovative watch-within-a-watch into reality, the
designers integrated a particularly efficient double-pawl automatic
winding mechanism into the
IWC-manufactured
89800 calibre.
The movement
consists of
474 individual parts and builds up a power reserve of 68
hours. The sapphire-glass back invites you to take a look at the
movement with its unusual rotor in the delicate shape of a Spitfire
silhouette.
Click on the mouse wheel to see the large size ...BIG FOTO
But the watch is special, not only because of the choice of 18-carat
red gold for the case and push-buttons, but also for its elaborate
surface machining. Exposed areas like the casing ring, push-buttons and
case back are carefully handfinished by experienced specialists. The
dynamic interplay of polished and satin-finished surfaces is integral to
the watch’s unusual design.
The shimmering, slate-coloured metallic
dial, with its sun-pattern finish, creates an enchanting contrast with
the warm gold of the case and the brown tone of the leather strap. Both
elements, metal and leather, are intrinsic to the classic pilot’s watch
feel. Hands, numerals and the goldplated appliqués are coated with
luminescent material and facilitate excellent legibility, both by day
and night.
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Features
mechanical chronograph movement
Stopwatch function with hours minutes and seconds,
hour and minute counters combined in a totalizer at 12 o’clock
Flyback function, small hacking seconds
perpetual calendar
large double-digit displays for both the day and month
leap year display
screw-in crown
glass secured against displacement by drop in air pressure
see-through sapphire-glass back
rotor in the shape of a Spitfire
Movement
Calibre: 89800
Frequency: 28,800 A/h/ 3Hz
Jewels: 52
Power reserve: 68 h
Winding: automatic
View Details Watch
Materials: case in 18-carat red gold,
slate-coloured dial,
brown alligator leather strap,
folding clasp in 18-carat red gold
Glass: sapphire, convex, antireflective coating on both sides
Water-resistant: 6 bar
Diameter. 46 mm
Case height: 17.5 mm
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