IWC’s Colourful Play

IWC has this year continued its adventure into colourful ceramics, this time by partnering with colour-matching company Pantone to register the exact shade of its recently outed Top Gun Pilot’s Watches.

There’s a ‘Woodland Green’ edition for fans of military timepieces, with a case, dial and strap — everything, essentially, save for the black pushers, crown and caseback — in a dark olive green. The watch introduces a new case size for the collection. Measuring 44.5mm, it’s a happy halfway-house between the original, sleeve-stretching 46mm Big Pilot and last year’s slimmed-down 43mm Big Pilot (which, on the wrist, still packs plenty of heft).

Yet it’s the new white, zeitgeisty, streetwear-dipped ‘Lake Tahoe’ version that burned brightest. As fresh as the snow around the Californian body of water from which it takes its name, the watch’s icy ceramic-and-titanium case contrasts against a jet-black dial with Super-LumiNova-coated hands and hour indices. Here, the caseback is made from titanium and the pushers and crown from stainless steel—the reflective nature of that material popping against the matt-effect finish of the case. A titbit of horologic trivia: IWC is the only Swiss watchmaker licensed to provide the US Navy’s strike fighter squadrons with mechanical timepieces.

Just 1,000 examples of each piece will roll off IWC production lines each year. Expect our favourite and red-hot white variant, priced at $15,900 to disappear quicker than the Lake Tahoe snow in the sun.

iwc.com