IWC’s new Pilot’s Watch pays homage to the Mark 11 pilot watch designed by former IWC managing director Ernst Jakob Homberger. Based on specifications provided by the British Ministry of Defense, the Mark 11 was manufactured to aid RAF navigators accurately pin-point their targets during the Second World War. The limited edition IWC Pilot’s Watch Automatic 36mm Special Edition for The Rake & Revolution incorporates elements from the Mark 11, including luminous markers at 3,6,9 and 12 o’clock and the triangular index at 12. The olive-green dial and matte bronze case are new, but give the watch a retro feel and unique patina.
The 36mm bronze case comes on a brown leather NATO-style strap made by British shoemaker George Cleverley out of 200-year-old Russian Reindeer hide. The leather, tanned and cured in Saint Petersburg in 1785, laid buried 100 feet below sea level after sinking in a shipwreck off the coast of Plymouth Sound. The watch includes two additional straps, an olive-green suede leather strap with bronze-colored keepers by Jean Paul Menicucci and an olive-green nylon NATO strap with bronze-colored keepers by NOMAD Watch Works.
The IWC Pilot’s Watch Automatic 36mm Special Edition for The Rake & Revolution ($ 4,500.00) will be available in January 2019, in a limited run of just 150 pieces. Register to purchase at therake.com.
