Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition ‘Antoine de Saint Exupéry’ with sapphire-glass back revealing the movement’s intricate design. IWC
The disappearance of Antoine de Saint-Exupery on July 31, 1944, remained a mystery until 1998, when a fisherman found the French writer and aviator’s bracelet in a net pulled from the sea close to Marseilles.
Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition ‘Antoine de Saint Exupéry’ with sapphire-glass back revealing the movement’s intricate design. IWC
In 2006, salvaged wreckage identified as parts of his aircraft were exhibited at a museum in Le Bourget near Paris, following a joint project between the Antoine de Saint-Exupery Youth Foundation and IWC Schaffhausen.
Over the last 10 years, the Swiss brand has paid tribute to the pioneering aviator with a series of “Antoine de Saint-Exupery” timepieces as variations of its iconic Pilot range.
The 2016 “Antoine de Saint Exupéry” limited editions include the Pilot Double Chronograph and Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar featuring the hallmark tobacco-brown dial and leather strap with cream-coloured ornamental seams recalling his flying suit.
Engraved on the caseback of the Double Chronograph is a Lockheed P-38 Lightning — the aircraft that Saint-Exupery took off on his last reconnaissance flight over southern France.
The dial is inspired by the control panel and flight instruments in the P-38’s cockpit, while the hands are shaped like propeller blades. Designed for flying, the 44mm stainless-steel model has a soft iron inner case for protection against magnetic fields and a sapphire glass secured against drops in pressure.
The larger, 46mm Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar has a cone-shaped crown reminiscent of the pioneering age of aviation, when pilots like Saint-Exupéry often had to climb into an ice-cold cockpit and operate the controls with gloves.
Combining ingenious technical features, the model shows not only the lunar cycles but also the seconds, minutes, hours, date, day, month and year in four digits.
Mechanically programmed, all the displays are automatically advanced and will take into account different month lengths and all the leap days in the Gregorian calendar until 2100, without the need for a single correction. Likewise, the perpetual moon-phase display will need to be adjusted by only one day after 577.5 years.
The transparent sapphire-glass back reveals the movement and solid 18ct red-gold rotor engraved “Edition Saint Exupery” and “One out of 750” while at the centre is a medallion with the novelist’s first-name initial, “A”.
Pilot’s Watch Double Chronograph Edition ‘Antoine de Saint Exupéry’ with the back of the watch engraved with a Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Photos courtesy of IWC
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.