tonygomes
5
The Genesis
Jan 15, 2018,09:39 AM
As the design progressed, in the back of a restaurant menu, in that auspicious evening of 8 October 2015 the Special Watch for Aviators was being conceived by a small group of collectors to be the perfectest IWC traditional pilot's watch, with form strictly following function without gimmickry. It was to be a tribute to the three IWC iconic pilot watches from the past - the Spezialuhrfürflieger from 1936, the Luftwaffe's Beobachtunguhr from 1941, and the RAF's Mark 11 from 1948 and later iterations.
It was to be a LE of 20, by invitation only, for IWC collectors with positive contributions to the IWC Forum.
The original concept for the SWFA incorporates the features of the aforementioned IWC pilot's watches.
- Spezialuhrfürflieger, the old style cursive IWC script, no date window, and the name variation using Aviator in lieu of Pilot.
- Luftwaffe's Beobachtunguhr, the central hacking seconds, the sandblasted steel case, the triangle/double dot at 12, the font for the 3/6/9 hour numerals, luminous hour markers/numerals, no date window. (The blue steel hands was a later suggestion by IWC.)
- RAF's Mark 11, the case, the crown, the central hacking seconds. the type of hands, the soft iron inner cage for strong resistance to magnetic fields, the glass secured against displacement by drop in air pressure, and no date window.
We would have preferred an IWC in-house manual wound movement and the traditional IWC cursive script. The in-house movement was not available at the time, but the ETA based cal 35110 is proving to be very accurate, a fundamental quality.
Unfortunately the IWC traditional script was vetoed at IWC.
BTW, the 3-6-9 only hour numbers was inspired by traditional cockpit panel chronographs, not by the Rolex Explorer.
Production and distribution to follow later, may be.