by Kyle Stults on July 20, 2011
I believe, but am not certain, that this special edition IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar watch is the final version of the same watch that I first previewed in August 2010. Why IWC is now touting this watch despite its “2010″ status is a bit odd — my only guess is that the watches are just now starting to be delivered. I originally referred to the watch as “yellow”, but I see that IWC refers to it as “orange” — six of one, half dozen of another, I say. Oh, and for what it’s worth — I still do not like absolutely detest the “One out of 250″ engraving on the watch. At this level I think the pieces should be individually numbered pieces.
This watch is exclusively available at the IWC Boutiques in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Price is $28,000.
IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Watch Boutique Exclusive
46mm stainless steel case
by Kyle Stults on June 22, 2011
Sandblasted steel case…
Here’s a cool looking new special edition watch from IWC Schaffhausen designed upon its popular Pilot’s watch collection. This watch is a “Tribute to Patrouille Suisse” — the Patrouille Suisse is being a particularly talented aerobatic team of the Swiss Air Force. As is the case with many such special edition watches, availability and distribution is very limited — you’ll find this watch only in Switzerland, with just 300 piece in total being made. The watch has a sandblasted stainless steel case which gives it a nice “soft” look that nicely matches the matte grey dial. Long time IWC aficionados may recall that the first special watch for the Patrouille Suisse, a special edition of the Mark XII (pictured below), was made by IWC way back in 1994. My how far IWC’s designs have come since then!
Via: IWC Forum.
IWC Pilot’s Watch “Tribute to Patrouille Suisse” Special Edition
Patrouille Suisse with four aircraft in formation “shadow”
IWC Pilot Mark XII ”Tribute to Patrouille Suisse” Special Edition (1994)
As you may know, Perpetuelle launched its new pre-owned watch marketplace (the watchXchange) for the U.S. market earlier this year — if you haven’t checked it out yet, I hope you will do so soon! With its “intermediated transaction” process that provides Buyers with Guaranteed Authenticity and Sellers with Payment Protection, the watchXchange is a safe, secure and worry-free way for individuals to Buy and Sell pre-owned watches online, regardless of watch expertise or experience. Because all watches bought on the watchXchange pass through the inspection of expert watchmakers, the risky and time-consuming burden for You to “Know the Seller” is lifted off of Your shoulders – and instead Perpetuelle assumes this risk for you, in fact even give you “Guaranteed Authenticity”.
Today I wanted to highlight one attractive watch that is currently offered on the watchXchange – this IWC Aquatimer Chronograph Ref 3767-03 is listed as an “original owner” item with all boxes and papers, in excellent condition, with some wear to the bracelet (see photos). The Seller is currently Asking $4,300, which is a very nice discount off of the list price of $6,000+ if you bought it brand new, and nearly $1,000 less than the ~$5,000 that many grey dealers are asking for this particular model. Even so, if you still think the price is too high, you can always post your own Offer for the Seller to consider. Click through to Buy or Make an Offer on this IWC Aquatimer Chronograph (or you can just view more photos + details on the watch).
IWC Aquatimer Chronograph Ref 3767-03
44mm stainless steel case, day of week and date function, bracelet-quick change system
IWC has dedicated a watch to former world football star Luis Figo. Reference IW504213 is a limited edition of seven Portuguese Tourbillon Mystere pieces in rose gold with a special rotor engraved with the name “Luis Figo” and the number “7″, as Figo wore in many of his years as a pro. I guess Figo and 6 of his biggest fans can now share something in common. Speaking of numbers, I see that IWC continues its practice of no longer individually numbering its limited edition pieces, something that I have (here, here, here) and will continue to frown until I am otherwise convinced it is a worthy approach. So…any Figo fans out there?
IWC Portuguese Tourbillon Mystere Limited Edition Figo
44.2mm pink gold case, IWC Calibre 50900 automatic mechanical movement, “Figo” motif
Luis Figo Highlight Reel (YouTube)
by Kyle Stults on February 22, 2011
Beautiful blue IWC Ingenieur
For the fifth time, Schaffhausen-based IWC introduces a watch to benefit the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. The first “IWC for Laureus” watch I wrote about was the IWC Portuguese Automatic for Laureus (the 2009/2010 model), but prior to this there was the the Portuguese Chronograph Automatic in 2006, the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Automatic in 2007, and the Da Vinci Chronograph in 2008. This year’s model is inspired from IWC’s Ingenieur Automatic of 1955. Crafted in a stainless steel case, powered by the IWC-manufactured 80111 calibre, the IWC Ingenieur Automatic Laureus Sport For Good Foundation Edition is most remarkable for its robust blue dial. Limited to 1,000 watches, the caseback of the watch features the winning design of the children’s drawing competition that IWC uses to also support the cause.
IWC Ingenieur for Laureus Sport for Good Foundation (2011 Edition)
This year, the jury chose the illustration by 8 year-old Sohel Abrar Khan from Mumbai, who is part of the Laureus supported Magic Bus project. The young boy interpreted the theme of the competition, “Time for Unity”, with a picture showing seven young people who have gathered for a game of football. Magic Bus, supported by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, provides an outdoor education for children living in poverty throughout India, including children from the Bombay Port Trust slum in Mumbai – one of the world’s poorest. The image depicts his idea of how to create unity in the slums.
Did You Know?
Magic Bus is an outdoor education programme that uses sport to reach out to children. From the age of 7 to 18, children engage in weekly two hour sessions, day trips and outdoor activity camps. A tailor-made curriculum takes them on a journey of self-discovery throughout their childhood, with young leaders from their own communities making them aware of their unique abilities and the world around them. This awareness turns into a belief among the children that they have value and can make a difference, which provides them with purpose in life.
Magic Bus currently works with 150,000 children per year living in poverty. In the next three years it aims to expand across India, by training young leaders to deliver its programme, reaching out to one million children and young people each year. For more information visit:www.magicbusindia.org
This is the new IWC Portofino Dual Time. It is another in the new Portofino collection, IWC’s Collection of focus this year. Like the new IWC Portofino Hand-Wound 8 Days I showed you last week, the watch looks very sharp and eye-catching. The upper sub-dial features GMT (24-hour) functionality, while the lower subdial is a seconds-counter. The watch is on the larger side, at 45mm, and comes on a Santoni leather strap that IWC is so proud of this year. The dark, burnished brown leather Santoni strap is particularly nice looking. I would like to have seen the date window be larger, though — there is certainly the dial space for it.
Full specifications will be available on our SIHH 2011 IWC Forum Feed. There are 3 variations, each of which I will show you now:
IWC Portofino Dual Time
IW361004 – red gold with dark sunburst-pattern dial
Price is approx. $17,600 (avail. fall 2011)
IW361002 – stainless steel with white/silver dial
Price unknown
IW361002 – stainless steel with black sunburst-pattern dial
Price unknown
Word is that IWC will be making its longstanding and classcially-styled “Portofino” collection the star of the show for 2011, starting with this new IWC Portofino Hand-Wound Eight Days. The new Eight Days (a reference to its power reserve), is a beautiful looking watch, right down to the “Portofino” notation on the dial. The watch comes on a leather strap made by high-end Italian shoemaker Santoni — which I think is a nice touch, too! The version you see here is a steel case/silver dial. Also comes in steel case/black dial and a red gold case with slate-colored dial. Price will be right around $10,000/avail. Summer 2011.
IWC Portofino Hand-Wound Eight Days
Manual-wind IWC Caliber 59210 with 192 hour (8 day) power reserve
backside
There will also be a Portofino “Dual Time” model (Ref. 3610), which should be exciting as well. Also, the Portofino Automatic (Ref. 3565) and Chronograph (Ref. 3910) will get a few tweaks, including being available on a Milanese mesh bracelets. Read more in the official IWC 2011 Portofino Press Release, here.
Looks nice, but…
…I can’t get past how pathetic it is for IWC to label these “limited edition” pieces as “One out of 50″ rather than individually numbering them (1/50, 2/50…50/50). IWC PLEASE stop being lazy (or tell me why you are not, in fact, being lazy) and diminishing the value of your “limited edition” watches by numbering them as “One Out of 100″, or “One out of 50″ (Boutique only Smurf Blue Pilot Watch), or “One of 250″ (Yellow Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar)….at this level, I think collectors expect and deserve individually numbered pieces. This “One of XXX” business is soooo not cool.
IWC Portuguese Perpetual Calendar Limited Edition 2010
42.3mm rose gold case, perpetual calendar, perpetual moonphase, IWC Caliber 51613 movement (automatic),
Exquisite…
The IWC Portuguese family of watches pays tribute to the remarkable seafarers of Portugal, but this particular Portuguese is a tribute to the founder of IWC, F.A. Jones. This limited edition skeleton watch is equipped with the hand-wound IWC Calibre 98910 movement, and well, let’s just say the pictures speak for themselves…
As an aside, I’d like to stack this next to the Armin Strom Blue Chip Skeleton I reviewed a few months ago…now wouldn’t that be fun!
IWC Portuguese F.A. Jones Skeleton
Limited Edition of 50 pieces in platinum ($58,000 per)
IWC Portuguese F.A. Jones Skeleton
100 pieces in rose gold ($43,000 per)
Big flyer…
In what is the last of several new special edition watches from IWC for 2010, here’s a first look at the new IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar, a “boutique exclusive” watch that will be available this fall. It is a loud and proud pilot watch, and I like the yellow-orange color scheme on the dial (and the strap). As for other aspects of the watch, well, as I have said many times I am not a fan of cut-off numerals on watch dials, and this watch has many of them. Also, I am not at all pleased with IWC’s laziness with the “generic” limited edition numbering on these pieces – each piece will be engraved “ONE of 250″ (rather than “1 of 250″ “2 of 250″ etc.). I had the same complaint with the IWC Big Blue Pilot Watch and I hope this does not become common practice for all of IWC’s limited editions. They should know better than to cut corners like this.
So all in all, I guess this watch is not for me, but what about you? Drop a comment below.
Yellow IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar (Boutique Exclusive)
46mm stainless steel case, black alligator strap w/matching deployment buckle
Limited to 250 globally. Price: $28,000
Close Up
By the way, if you missed my previous posts on the aforementioned IWC special edition watches for 2010, be sure to check out the Red Gold Portuguese Perpetual Calendar Double Moonphase, the Big Blue Pilot Watch, the IWC Zidane Ingenieur and the IWC Cousteau Aquatimer Chronograph.
