Pre-SIHH 2012 – new IWC Pilot Watch TOP GUN Collection and much more news

IWC declares 2012 as the year of the Pilot’s Watch. They will treat us with many new models and establish the Top Gun collection as an independent collection within the IWC Pilot’s Watch family.

The first to be shown to us, is the brand new Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Top Gun Miramar. But there’s more news of increased diameters, different design elements, a new in-house fly-back chronograph caliber and an all new Pilot’s Watch Worldtimer! Let’s take a look at what has changed…

First a new model: the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Top Gun Miramar. This is the ‘regular’ chronograph in the newly established Top Gun collection within the Pilot’s Watch Collection. It’s grey ceramic case has a diameter of 46 mm. Inside ticks a new movement, caliber 89365, which seems a variation on caliber 89361 that was used in the Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph. It’s also an in-house movement with fly-back chronograph, yet with 168 hours of power reserve!

The dial will have a different look, being matte anthracite in stead of black, and featuring a red hour ring close to the center and beige hands and minute chapter ring. The new design is not only for design purposes only, it also offers better legibility.

Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Top Gun Miramar:

– 46 mm in diameter

– ceramic back, titanium pushers, crown and case back

– matte anthracite dial

– red central hour chapter and beige minute indices and hands

– green textile strap

– new in-house caliber 89365 with 68 hours of power reserve

– functions: hours, minutes, date and fly-back chronograph

We’re not sure how the big case will look on an average wrist (46 mm isn’t humongous but is still quite large), but we’ll make some wrist shots during the upcoming SIHH, so you can draw your own conclusions. We do love the new design, the ceramic case and the green textile strap! Our conclusion… it’s BIG, not only in size, but also in looks and performance!

Now on to more news…

– a new Big Pilot’s Watch Top Gun Miramar with similar design elements as the pictured Chronograph Top Gun Miramar and the same movement, caliber 51111, as the regular Big Pilot’s Watch (ref. 5004), 48 mm in diameter

– a new Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Top Gun features a perpetual calendar with its four-digit year display, moon phase display and seven-day power reserve,

– the size of the regular Pilot’s Watch Chronograph increase with 1 mm, now 43 mm in diameter

– the launch of the new Pilot Watch Mark XVII with a diameter of 41 mm (2 mm larger than the previous Mark XVI)

– the Spitfire Chronograph with its IWC-manufactured 89365 calibre will be available in red gold

– new Pilot’s Watch Worldtimer with a 24-hour ring that makes it possible to look at all 24 time zones, including the Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). The city ring shows the names of 23 places around the globe, each of which represents a time zone. The dial shows local time, which can be adjusted forwards or backwards in one-hour steps – also when crossing the International Date Line. This also sounds like a new movement!

– the Pilot’s Watch Double Chronograph is now available in a larger case (now 46 millimetres) and features new red design elements on the dial

From what we could make up from the press release, we’ve counted at least one new caliber and possibly one more for the new Worldtimer. Also new Top Gun collection within the Pilot’s Watch family and an increased size for many models, however we’re not sure what we have to think of the those larger diameters.

We’re pretty sure IWC will treat us with lots of gorgeous new watches, so stay tuned for more news and live photos from the SIHH later this month!

For more new you can always check out the IWC website and their Facebook page.