Ceramic is a material that is now relatively common in watchmaking. It?s a nearly ubiquitous choice for bezel inserts on modern dive watches, and we?ve reached a point where full ceramic cases are becoming more and more commonplace, and certainly don?t feel quite as exotic as they did even a few short years ago. But back in 1994, when IWC released the ?Fliegerchronograph Keramik,? more commonly referred to today simply as reference 3705, ceramic was very new in the watch world. Indeed, some credit the 3705 as the first ceramic cased sports watch. And, as you might have guessed, it didn?t exactly catch on. IWC produced about 1,000 of these watches before ending production, and the watch was all but forgotten for years. In recent years, as interest has grown in ceramic watches, the 3705 has grown in stature significantly, and tends to trade above $20,000 when they come up for sale. Now, in a release that?s exclusive to IWC?s online channels, they?ve released a limited edition that pays tribute to the 3705, and since the 1990s version was well ahead of its time, not much needed to change on the re-release. 
The official designation of the new watch is the Pilot?s Watch Chronograph Edition ?Tribute to 3705,? and it bears the IWC reference number 387905. A side by side comparison of the new watch to the old reveals that IWC has made only small changes. The typeface reads as a bit more modern in the new version, and the IWC wordmark has been slightly shifted. The subdi...