Flight Instructor: IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41
This article was originally published in the January/February 2022 Issue of the WatchTime print magazine. Photos by IWC and Olaf Köster.
IWC has been developing and building watches for pilots for 85 years. Originally inspired by cockpit instruments, these wristwatches are still regarded today as robust, precise, functional and reliable. And they have long since ceased to be solely for professional pilots. Rather, its unmistakable appearance makes an IWC Pilot?s Watch a trendy ?tool watch,? i.e., a genuinely practical tool, which you can use to master many situations in everyday life.
In 1936, IWC introduced its first Pilot?s Watch. It had a rotating bezel with a tapered hand for marking a departure time. This Pilot?s Watch encased hand-wound Caliber 83, which was equipped with an antimagnetic escapement.
In the late 1930s, IWC developed a professional watch for pilots for the German Air Force with a satin-finished steel case and a diameter of 55 mm. Other features included an easy-grip winding crown, a black dial with luminescent numerals and hands, a stop-seconds function and a long leather strap so the watch could be worn over a flight suit. Each timepiece also had to meet the test conditions of the German naval observatory, which measured the timekeeping in six positions and at three different temperatures. Powered by hand-wound Caliber 52 T.S.C., this timepiece, as well as identical models made by the German watch manufacturers A. Lange & Söhn...
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