IWC celebrates its 150th anniversary with a generous line-up of 27 limited editions of the brand’s icons – including this popular Pilot’s Watch Chronograph, also known as the “FliegerChronograph“. The “150 Years” watch displays elapsed times against a glossy, white lacquered dial that pays tribute to the enamel dials of IWC’s historic pocket watches.
After introducing several editions of the Portugieser (including this superb automatic chronograph or a constant force tourbillon) as well as an unexpected yet desirable “Tribute to Pallweber” watch, IWC continues to deploy its 150-year concept of limited editions inside all its collections – and today we move into Pilot’s watches. Meet the IWC Big Pilot’s Watch Big Date Edition “150 Years” ref. 5105, the first Flieger watch of the brand with a big date display.
Looking at recent collections by Montblanc, one series of watches clearly created a strong interest amongst the collecting community. You name it; the Minerva-inspired Montblanc 1858 Chronograph Tachymetre and its superb (to say the least) hand-wound Monopusher movement. One not-so-superfluous problem though with these watches… Their prices. Well, if you like the Military- and vintage-inspired Minerva chronographs and if you have a normal budget, MB has the solution at the SIHH 2018: the Montblanc 1858 Automatic Chronograph.
Graham is not shy to create bold watches… If you know them already, you might be aware of the hyper-masculine and completely original Chronofighter watches, some large pilot-chronographs with a unique trigger device to activate the timing sessions. Even less common were the Vintage Nose Art Ltd. watches, showing on their dials some aviation-inspired pinups. And because the end of the year is coming, the brand has decided to bring something quite “à propos”, with the Graham Chronofighter Vintage Nose Art Merry Ltd…
We often hear that blue is new black… In recent years, we have seen dozens of watches evolving with the addition of blue dials, yet in sports watches, black is still quite the norm. Not for Oris! Just like they did recently with the Artelier Calibre 111, the brand introduces a blue version of its in-house version of the Big Crown ProPilot, a powerful (to say the least) aviation-inspired watch – which also happens to be one of the brand’s bestsellers in Switzerland (we knew they had some good tastes). Overview!
Hanhart’s reputation in terms of Military/Pilot chronographs is not to be demonstrated anymore. The German “brand with the red button” (the brand’s signature feature since 1938) is indeed specialized in creating strong, powerful and slightly vintage-inspired chronographs (the Pioneer collection, reminiscent of 1940s pilots and naval officers watches). Yet, there’s another watch in the collection, one that, without losing the roots of the company, looks at future: the bold and aggressive Hanhart Primus. Today, we take a look at the latest version, the Black Ops Pilot, which also happens to be a limited edition (with pre-orders opened).
Back at Baselworld 2017, Bell & Ross pleased collectors by launching a new “Vintage” collection, which had quite some arguments: smaller in diameter, with slimmer cases, an overall redesigned shape, some cool details… A winning combination for many B&R lovers. Among the 3 watches presented (3-hand, 3-hand with rotatable bezel and chronograph), the model that probably stroke me most was the simpler HMS version, a no-nonsense utilitarian, small and reasonably priced watch. This Bell & Ross Vintage BR V1-92 today receives its “Military” badges, in a new (and super-cool) version.
This was one of the cool finds at Baselword 2017. There’s some new kids on the block and they go by the name of Reservoir. Further to the presentation earlier this year, the brand is now launching on the market. Their timepieces provide their own cool, off-beat take on watchmaking, inspired by their fascination for all things mechanical and a nostalgia for the heyday of car culture and old measurement instruments: speedometers, tachometers, fuel, oil, temp, volt gauges, you name it!
This was one of the cool finds at Baselword 2017. There’s some new kids on the block and they go by the name of Reservoir. Further to the presentation earlier this year, the brand is now launching on the market. Their timepieces provide their own cool, off-beat take on watchmaking, inspired by their fascination for all things mechanical and a nostalgia for the heyday of car culture and old measurement instruments: speedometers, tachometers, fuel, oil, temp, volt gauges, you name it!
Today, we are going hands on with a special edition of possibly one of the most legendary pilot’s watches of all time, or at the very least, one of the latest versions of it. Officially unveiled a few months ago, the IWC Pilot’s Watch MARK XVIII Edition “Antoine De Saint Exupéry” marks another addition to a long-line of military inspired models. It’s not a new watch as such, but rather part of an update to the existing Antoine De Saint Exupéry line, which includes two other models (a chronograph and a 36mm automatic ladies model). Like the standard Mark XVIII, it’s nicely sized at 40mm and features a third-party movement to keep the price down. Read on for the details and of course, some nice live photos.