IWC Grande Montre d’Aviateur Calendrier Perpétuel Edition Antoine de Saint Exupéry IW502617

Schaffhausen, 23 December 2010 – For the fifth time, the Swiss quality watch manufacturer IWC Schaffhausen honours the poet and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with a limited edition from the Pilot’s Watch line. This rarely produced Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar is a special tribute to the unusual life’s work of a great Frenchman.

With its – by now characteristic – tobacco brown dial and strikingly stitched calfskin strap, the watch is instantly recognizable to connoisseurs and collectors as an exclusive “Saint Exupéry”. The Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition Antoine de Saint Exupéry is unmistakable, very masculine and packed with outstanding technical features. Starting with the IWC-manufactured automatic 51614calibre and seven-day power reserve all the way through to the mechanically programmed calendar with its four-digit year display and the moon phase display for both hemispheres. This extraordinary combination is even more resplendent in an18-carat red gold case.Apart from its unique functions,the feature that sets the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition Antoine de Saint Exupéry apart from other complicated watches is the ease with which it can be operated.

Homage to Saint-Exupéry

Like no one before him, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry took his passion for flying to the limit in his quest to conquer seemingly insurmountable barriers. Whether piloting mail from Toulouse via the Sahara to Dakar or from Buenos Aires
over the Andes to the storm-ravaged coasts of Patagonia, Saint-Exupéry had a spirit for adventure that remained undaunted and in the 1920s made him a hero in the early days of airmail. He transformed his passion into works of literature that became world-famous. Since 2005, IWC Schaffhausen has maintained a partnership with Saint-Exupéry’s descendants, who work to keep the legacy of the poet and pilot alive. But Saint-Exupéry was not only a courageous pilot: he was equally fascinated by technology and engineering and registered15patents related to aviation.

The Swiss watch manufacturer, well known for its long tradition in the manufacture of pilot’s watches, is about to launch its fifth special limited edition to the memory of Saint-Exupéry and in honour of the breadth and richness of
his personality.

A full complement of calendar displays

The Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition Antoine de Saint Exupéry in18-carat red gold is not only unusual to look at: it is also limited to 500watches worldwide. The characteristic Saint Exupéry-style dial also features the filigree displays of the perpetual calendar, which function as additional decorative elements. Apart from displaying the time in hours, minutes and seconds, the dial also indicates the moon phase as seen in both hemispheres. It is a rare display
in a pilot’s watch that is nevertheless very much part of the modern, globalized world.

The silhouette of a tiny aircraft points in the direction of the moon phase in the northern (N) and southern (S) hemispheres and, depending on the observer’s point of view, is perceived as a mirror image. The moon phase display of the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition Antoine de Saint Exupéry deviates by only 12 seconds from the actual course of the moon in a given lunar period. This is equivalent to one full day in 577years. All calendar displays such as the date, day, month, year, decade, century and moon phase (which is advanced by the weekday star wheel) are based on an ingenious synchronization system: each of the displays advances automatically and takes into account every single leap day in the Gregorian Calendar until 2100
without any form of adjustment.

In terms of operation, the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition Antoine de Saint Exupéry is incomparably simple: in the event of the watch’s not being used for some time, the displays cannot be confused or mis-set but only advanced synchronously via the crown.

A movement that lacks for nothing

The see-through sapphire-glass back sets off the qualities of the IWC-manufactured 51614 calibre to full advantage. Thanks to the mechanical movement’s highly efficient Pellaton winding system, the mainspring is fully wound in just
under two days of normal wear. The power reserve display, which is combined with the date display at “3o’clock” on the dial, slowly moves anticlockwise from1to 7(days), indicating that the movement is fully wound. The fascinating interplay of the two pawls, which – depending on the direction of rotation – advance the pawl wheel, can be observed perfectly through the transparent back cover. The rotor features the engraved lettering EDITION SAINT EXUPÉRY and an18-carat gold medallion with the initial “A” taken from the famous Frenchman’s signature. The number engraved on the casing ring
indicates that only 500 watches of the model in red gold will be produced for this limited edition.

The Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition Antoine de Saint Exupéry is water-resistant to 6bar. At 46millimetres in diameter and 16 millimetres in height, the external dimensions of the red gold case are striking, to say the least. The watch’s overall look is balanced to perfection by the brown calfskin strap with its folding clasp in red gold and characteristic quilted seams.