IWC honours the Patrouille Suisse with a Ltd. Edition
IWC Schaffhausen pays tribute to the high-flying excellence of the Patrouille Suisse with a special edition for 2015. 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. This year IWC is recognising the exceptional flyers of the Swiss aerobatics squadron with a Big Pilot’s Watch Edition “Patrouille Suisse”, a special version of the iconic watch first produced in 1940 which will be limited to 250 watches.
“Our association with the team from the Patrouille Suisse is based on our shared passion for aviation, and goes back many years,” explained Linus Fuchs, Managing Director Switzerland at IWC Schaffhausen. “The limited edition Big Pilot’s Watch is a homage to the excellence of these exceptional pilots and the powerful interaction between man and technology,” he said.
The Big Pilot’s Watch Edition “Patrouille Suisse” (Ref. IW500910) is the ideal companion for ambitious high-flyers. This special edition 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 51011 calibre – the largest automatic movement manufactured in-house by IWC Schaffhausen – combines all the features that have proved their worth in the long history of mechanical watches from IWC.
Within no time at all, the spring-mounted rotor and Pellaton pawl-winding system build up a power reserve of over 7 days, and after exactly 168 hours the movement is mechanically stopped by an ingenious train in the power reserve. Stopping the movement before all the tension in the spring has been exhausted eliminates the danger of diminishing torque in the mainspring. This ensures the same level of accuracy the whole time the watch is running. The power reserve display at “3 o’clock” provides a reliable indication of the time remaining until the movement comes to a stop. A special feature of the Big Pilot’s Watch Edition “Patrouille Suisse” is the small seconds at “9 o’clock”, symmetrically opposite the power reserve display. The date display is at “6 o’clock” as usual. The 46-mm case encloses a soft-iron cage that protects the movements against extreme magnetic fields.
