Antoine de Saint Exupéry was an acclaimed French poet, journalist, and writer; for a brief second, the author of The Little Prince novel was also known to fly airplanes. As such, IWC designed a collection of limited edition Pilot’s watches to honor the man’s famous work and multiple talents.
Called the IWC Big Pilot’s Watch Annual Calendar Edition “Antoine De Saint Exupéry”, this watch was inspired by the previous “Le Petit Prince” variations and shows off a superb 46.2 mm 18k red gold case.
Watch connoisseurs will most likely notice the large conical screw-in crown, that’s like a signature for IWC’s Big Pilot’s watches, while the 60-meter water resistance might come in handy in case you plan to go underwater. The dial is where major changes have taken place, with the “Antoine De Saint Exupéry” editions boasting a rich tobacco brown dial that seems to match the red gold case.
The thick hands and beefy Arabic numeral hour indices feature red gold accents, and the luminescent material used should help users tell time, be it day or night. A matching brown calfskin strap, with white stitching, is what the leather specialists at Santoni have brought to the project.
Powering the Big Pilot’s Watch Annual Calendar Edition “Antoine De Saint Exupéry” is the IWC Caliber 52850, that’s visible through a sapphire display caseback; it comes with a 7-day power reserve and features the latest version of IWC’s Pellaton winding system, that benefits from ceramic components and day after day of hassle-free operation.
The large, partially skeletonized, 18k red gold winding rotor, is reminiscent of a Lightning P-38 plane – the same model that took the author on his last reconnaissance mission. In the end, we should mention that IWC Big Pilot’s Watch Annual Calendar Edition “Antoine De Saint Exupéry” is limited to 250 pieces, each of them being priced at $32,400.
