Paying tribute to the Swiss Air Force display team, IWC has created the Big Pilot’s Watch Edition Patrouille Suisse.
It takes more than just fly-boy good looks to pilot an acrobatic fighter jet. In fact, you might be surprised to know that looks rarely come into it. What it does take is precision, attention, intelligence, and nerve, and it’s those qualities that IWC salutes with the Big Pilot’s Watch Edition “Patrouille Suisse”, a special version of the iconic watch first produced in 1940 limited to 250 watches.
The pilots of the Swiss Air Force display team have been wowing international air show crowds for decades with the precision and perfection of their formation flying. The Big Pilot’s Watch Edition “Patrouille Suisse” (Ref. IW500910) is presented in grey with a case of blasted stainless steel featuring the characteristic design elements that make this professional timepiece for pilots instantly identifiable.
The piece’s 51011 calibre is the largest automatic movement manufactured in-house by IWC Schaffhausen and its spring-mounted rotor and Pellaton pawl-winding system build up a power reserve of over seven days. The power reserve display at “3 o’clock” provides a reliable indication of the time remaining until the movement comes to a stop, with the small seconds located at “9 o’clock”, and the date display at “6 o’clock”.
The 46-millimetre case encloses a soft-iron cage that protects the movements against extreme magnetic fields, while the case back features an engraving of three jet planes resembling the Northrop F-5E Tiger II – the planes the Patrouille Suisse pilots use to perform their aerial displays with the same high levels of precision we associate with Swiss watches.
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