Ref. IW395003, Limited Edition of 80 Pieces
IWC Schaffhausen and the Antoine de Saint Exupéry Youth Foundation have marked the 80th anniversary of Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s historic flight across the Atlantic, with an exhibition at the IWC Boutique in New York. The Swiss luxury watch manufacturer has also created a special timepiece, the Pilot’s Watch Timezoner Chronograph Edition “80 Years Flight to New York”, to commemorate the author’s trip aboard the French flying boat Latécoère 521.
In addition to breaking records as a pilot, Antoine de Saint Exupéry made aviation history as a passenger too. Travelling onboard the Latécoère 521 “Lieutenant de Vaisseau Paris” in July 1939, the aviator and writer took part in the flying boat’s first nonstop crossing of the North Atlantic in just 28 hours and 27 minutes. Celebrating the anniversary of his involvement in this epic flight, IWC Schaffhausen’s exhibition showcases stunning photographs and other items from the period. As well as telling the story of Saint Exupéry’s journey aboard the luxuriously-equipped flying boat, the retrospective looks back on the exciting times the famous French aviator and writer spent in New York itself. While living there, he wrote his most famous literary work, “Le Petit Prince” (“The Little Prince”).
Indeed, the Big Apple is so significant in his career that IWC and the Antoine de Saint Exupéry Youth Foundation, in partnership with the Latécoère Foundation, have published a new coffee table book on the subject. Lavishly designed, it will be on display at IWC Boutiques around the world.
At the anniversary exhibition in New York, IWC also officially launched the Pilot’s Watch Timezoner Chronograph Edition “80 Years Flight to New York” (Ref. IW395003). In a nod to the transatlantic flight itself, the timepiece features the patented timezoner function, which allows the wearer to adjust the time zone by simply pressing down and rotating the bezel.
IWC will donate the full proceeds from the sale of the first watch (piece “1 of 80”) to the Saint Exupéry Foundation, as it continues to support educational programmes for young people around the world.
Technical Specifications:
The case, in stainless steel, measures 46mm x 16.8mm. It has a convex AR-coated sapphire crystal, a caseback engraved with a relief of the Latécoère 521 aeroplane, and it is water resistant to 60 meters. Brown ceramic bezel with “Paris” and “New York” marked in red.
Movement is the Swiss automatic IWC in-house caliber 89760 with 39 jewels, 28,800 vph and a power reserve of 68 hours. Functions are: 24-hour display. Date display. Stopwatch function with hours, minutes and seconds. Hour and minute counters combined in a totalizer at 12 o’clock. Flyback function. Small hacking seconds.
It has a sepia-brown dial with rhodium-plated luminous hands and markers.
It comes on a brown calfskin leather strap with a steel buckle.
Price is $13,100.
