Fresh from the Showcase here at SwissWatchExpo. We're going to talk a little bit about
the Pilot's watches that we have from IWC. Now I've talked before about the Pilot's watches
and there's some really interesting pieces that we have right now, but I feel like are important
to the overall collection because they're so very different and they represent some
forward momentum from IWC in terms of how their Pilot's watches have progressed over the years.
Now I've chosen three. One of them. I happen to be wearing the IWC Top Gun. And this watch has
gone through a metamorphosis, a series of changes over the past 10 years or so. And some of those
changes have been pretty significant. Actually the movements in them have changed drastically.
The new movements are very different from the old movements. The design of the dial is very
different from the old design, some of the old versions of the chronograph that I'm wearing.
And I'm going to take this off for just a second, because I want to be able to
show this to the camera. I love wearing this watch, by the way. This particular watch has
gone through a lot of changes as far as the dials concerned, can I hope we can see that
this one happens to have the day date feature in a horizontal pattern on the dial. Now, previous
generations of this watch had what was called the triple date feature, which means it had the day.
And then the date had the, the, the date before the current day, and then after the present day.
So you saw three dates in a row. A lot of people found that to be not so Bauhaus design. They
found that to be a little bit complicated in its style. And there was a lot of complaints about it.
I personally liked that watch quite a bit. I liked that triple date feature. It's unique because the
idea was is that this, the style of the dial on this particular watch looked like an aviators
instrument gauge or instrument cluster. And it represented a lot of different things that go
on inside of the cockpit of an aircraft. So I felt like it was specifically in tune with that
others didn't. So the design changed and now it's got the day and the date side by side,
and a horizontal pattern, a couple of other things that have changed about this particular watch,
the chronograph seconds hand is blight at the top. And then this happens to be
black at the very bottom of the chronograph, just below
the center pin. Well, in the previous generations of this watch, there was a little red jet at the
end of the second sand for the chronograph, which I always thought was really cool. But there again,
it was not in keeping with that simple Bauhaus design movement. So they removed that jet and
there was a couple of other things that happened. The previous generation of this watch had the,
and I'm going to take the strap off. So the, we can see this a little bit better in the camera.
The previous generation of the case back on this watch was actually painted. It was red,
white, and blue. It was very crisp. It was very clear, but once again, because it had the jet logo
on the front and the triple date and all these things, it wasn't that simplistic Bauhaus design
that IWC champions itself with. So as a result, the case back changed, and now it's a titanium
case back. That's not steel that's titanium, and it's just simply engraved in the case back in a
very simplistic way. It's not the save money it's just to make the design more clean and simple,
but there's something even more important about this watch. So this watch actually has a matte
finished ceramic case. It's fully ceramic and these cases start out something like 15
times bigger than they actually wind up being once the, once the manufacturing is complete.
So this case is designed in a way it's zirconium
zirconium oxide, if I'm not mistaken and it's zirconium oxide ceramic. And so what winds
up winds up happening is in powder form. It's about 15 times larger than this. It's compressed
together. It's centered heated at a very high range, and it shrinks down the current size that
it's in when you receive it and you put it on your wrist. So there's a lot of technology that
goes into this watch. And a lot of people ask, well, why are they so expensive? This is why
this one also happens to have the 69,000 series IWC movement in it, which is a newer movement from
Richmont, which is the company that owns IWC. So that particular movement,
the chronograph movement winds up in a lot of different variations of the chronograph series
within whether it's the Portugieser or the Pilot series of the watch or even the entrepreneur.
So there's a lot to know, and like about the Pilot watches that throw
back to history of IWC, and of course, bring you to present day through all the different
metaphor. Metamorphosis of changes. Another change that happened in the Pilot series
is the Miramar. So this is the Top Gun Miramar. This has the colors that represent sort of that
Sandy beige, uh, Miramar look, the background, the sort of dark, dark green, uh, Sage color
from the mountains behind Miramar. And of course the desert tan where the actual base is located.
Now the Navy no longer uses the Miramar base in the way that they used to. So Top Gun has changed
a little bit, but these particular watches, this one still has the protective sticker on
the case back again, it's titanium. It doesn't have this, all the colors in the enameling done
on the back like the previous generations did, but the case is absolutely different.
This particular case is also the sir corneum oxide ceramic, but it's high Polish. It's not
matte finish. Now, if you don't, I don't know anything about ceramics and I certainly don't,
it's, it's absolutely confounding how you can get that high polished ceramic, and have it look like
kind of a black Chrome versus the original matte finish of the original style of the Top Gun.
And you can see that. I hope we can see that in that, in that picture of how
very different they are, you can't just go in and Polish or buff down that ceramic. That's
not how that works to a certain extent. Of course, they do use a buffing technology that that does,
but it has to be very, very smooth from the very get-go in order to get this color and
this style in it. So if you think to yourself, gee, that looks like black Chrome ceramic.
It is essential. So you pull all that together with that very simplistic design, the original
Top Gun series. That's not the Miramar has the red second sand at the bottom to give it just
a little splash of color and design. This one keeps that same Sandy beige color or what we
used to call desert gold. If you, if you were in the military, especially the army, you know,
all of our vehicles were that color. So this watch sort of incorporates all kinds of different ideas
about American military. It's a beautiful watch. This particular watch I'm, I'm fond of,
I don't normally like colors like this, and I really got sick of seeing that,
that color for years. But on this watch, it works very well. And because of the
way that it comes together with the strap and everything, it's a really cool watch.
And I definitely would want that part of my collection. So those are the two chronograph
series and Oh, one other thing I should probably know and something I should point out
the Miramar edition has two sub dials rather than three. Also it only has the date complication,
not the day date complication, whereas the original Top Gun has the day date complication,
and it has three sub dials. So that's a very sincere difference between the two in terms of
visual effects. And I think that should be noted and paid attention to also, I would probably,
if I failed to mention the fact that the Top Gun Miramar has the seconds at each one of the
hour markers, rather than the applied numerals for the actual hour itself, that would be a miss too.
So there's a lot of different things to notice about these watches. And again, this is high WC.
If you don't start paying attention to the details you miss a lot.
And you'll miss a lot of really cool features and design features from the IWC.
And I often forget about them myself. You constantly have to look at them. You'll
constantly stay interested. Now, another Pilot series watch that a lot of people forget about
is the 40 millimeter Pilot non chronograph. Now this particular watch has made of pure titanium.
It's a matte finish titanium, and it also has that sort of desert gold patina to it.
But that's not actually what it's mimicking. It's actually mimicking the age of the patina.
Now this does not have applied markers. It's got painted markers, which a lot of other chronographs
have applied markers. And at very first glance you think, Oh, those look like they're applied
because they're bubbled there. They have almost a three-dimensional effect to it.
And it isn't even just the numbers that are painted on there. It's also the hash marks
around the dial. This one has the date feature at the three o'clock position. It's very thin. It's
very easy to wear. So if you don't want to wear a clunky watch, that's really thick, but you want
one that fits up underneath your shirt cuff, you also don't want something like a Rolex or
some other large Breitling in your collection to wear absolutely every day. You want a lightweight
watch. Obviously this one's titanium and it's got a lot of really cool features about it.
One last thing that I got to point out the hands on this watch are actually blued
and that's not immediately apparent when you look at this dial, until you get this watch into very,
very bright light. You don't realize the outlined edges of the dial, I'm sorry of the hands.
And the tip of the seconds. Hand is actually blued. So once again, these are very finite
details that you have to start looking into. The case back of this watch is very, very simplistic,
not a lot there, but it does give you the opportunity to engrave the case back. If
you wanted to, and you wanted to personalize it yourself, maybe this is a gift for somebody
who's been in the military, or maybe a fly boy or a fly girl, and you can put their information on
the case and make it theirs and personalize it too. So you can buy these watches, the
extraordinarily good value from us here at Swiss watch expo. And you can find some things that
you probably can't find anywhere else, and you can put them in your collection. So if you want
to Pilot's watch and you want something that's true and was actually the very first Pilot watch
in the world that was actually used by a Pilot. The IWC is the one that you should choose and
have in your collection. And give us a call ring, the bell, subscribe, email us. We'll be
happy to answer all your questions about all the pilot series watches here at Swiss watch expo.