So today we have the IWC pilot's watch Mark 18 with us. Reference number
IW327015. We're going to take a closer look at this watch.
But before we do, I'd like to ask you to subscribe to our channel and
if you watch the video and like it, please give us a thumbs up and perhaps
let us know in the comments below what you think. So let's have a look
at the IWC pilot's watch Mark 18. This is absolutely a tool watch, and the direct
successor of the legendary IWC Mark 11. If you are not familiar with the Mark 11,
after the Second World War in 1948, the British Ministry of Defence
requested IWC to deliver some watches. These watches were mostly
used by Royal Air Force navigators and later by the pilots
themselves. That was the Mark 11. The Mark 18 draws inspiration
directly from those vintage IWC Mark 11 watches from the late 1940s that were
sent to the British Ministry of Defence. So the IWC Mark 18 is a stainless steel
watch with a steel case and steel bracelet. It's 40 millimeters and about 11
millimeters thick. The whole watch is brushed; you don't really see any
polished elements other than the logo on the clasp and part of the case back, but
as you would have it for a military watch, the whole case is brushed.
Inside the case, there is a soft iron inner case which makes the watch anti-magnetic.
The soft inner case kind of protects the movement against magnetization.
As a tool watch should be, the watch is completely protected against
magnetization. The crown is screwed down. There's no crown guard, but you can screw
it down. In the first position you can set the date
and in the second position, obviously you can set the time. The movement is
hacking, so when you pull the crown out to the second position, the second hand
stops. You can then set the watch exactly to the second again – another feature
taken from military watches. The case back is screw down and it's steeled, there's
no display. There is a plane in the middle and then around it, there are some
features like the name International Watch Company, pilot's watch, the reference
number, and the water-resistance. Most of the case is brushed and you have
some polished elements on the side. The watch has a sapphire crystal, which has
anti-reflective coating on both the inner and outer sides. A military watch has to
be easy to read and as such, the Mark 18 has a very simple and legible
dial. It has a black base with huge white luminescent numbers,
Arabic numerals all around. At three o'clock, there is no numeral, because that's where
the date window is located and at 12 o'clock, there is an upward
triangle with two dots – we'll talk about this in a minute. Below, you see IWC
Schaffhausen and just above the six o'clock, you see the model name Mark
18 and "automatic," referring to the movement. The hands are large sword-type
with luminous material just like the numerals and dial itself. The upward
facing triangle surrounded by two dots at the 12 o'clock position is
something that IWC took from early military watches. This was a feature that
helped to distinguish the upright position for pilots in low visibility
conditions. That way, they knew exactly where the 12 o'clock position was
even when they were flying at night. The IWC Mark 18
has a sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides.
The movement inside the Mark 18 is the caliber 35111. This is basically
not an in-house IWC caliber. It's an outsourced movement by Sellita.
It's based on the Sellita SW300-1, which is an automatic mechanical
movement with a 42-hour power reserve, frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour,
or 4 hertz. It has 25 jewels and you can't see it, but
if you open the case back, it has Côtes de Genève, as in Geneva
stripes, and perlage. As I said before, it's a hacking second, so
when you pull the crown out to the second position to set the time, the
second hand also stops, so you can set the time exactly to the second.
The Mark 18 comes on a steel bracelet. It's as polished as the rest of the
case, meaning it has few shiny parts except for the logo on the clasp. The
bracelet is 20 millimeters, so if you fancy, you can take it off and put a
strap on the watch. As a matter of fact, there are other references where you can
choose to have the watch on a leather or nylon strap and if you'd like another
color, the same size watch with a different reference is available with
a blue or white dial. This is the black dial version on a stainless steel
bracelet and that's the IW 327015 reference.
We really would like to hear your thoughts on this watch as well as any of our
other videos. So please let us know in the comments below what
you think of the IWC Mark 18. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel and
ring the bell. If you like this hands-on video with the IWC,
check out our other hands-on videos. We have a couple more. Let us know
in the comments what you think about those ones too. So until next
time – thank you very much!