MY DAY WITH: The IWC Chronograph Spitfire at the Goodwood 76th Members’ Meeting
Now, IWC is a brand I’ve always admired from afar, but haven’t had substantial personal experience with until last month. The timing worked out well, and I happened to be in the UK at the time of the Goodwood 76th Members’ Meet — an event I’d been dying to attend. Luckily for me, IWC Schaffhausen is the Official Timing Partner of the Goodwood Members’ Meeting and was kind enough to invite me along. Of course, I couldn’t attend such an event without some form of chronograph — and naturally an IWC. I ended up choosing the IWC Spitfire Chronograph on bracelet for my travels. The meet – Goodwood 76th Members’ Meeting As I arrived at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in Chichester, filled with excitement, I was hit by an icy chill. I was seriously underprepared for the unusually cold March day and was feeling the sort of cold I’d never felt before. Lucky for me, IWC had a strong presence at the meet and hosted guests within their multi-level trackside marquee. It was there I sought refuge from the snow, drank copious cups of coffee, and mingled with other guests. One particular guest, who I bumped into as I was leaving the gents, had taken…
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The dust of Baselworld 2018 has finally settled, and while there was a ton of quick news to hammer through, there are certain topics that require a little more digestion. Case in point: the world of small independent watchmaking had a lot on offer this year, both outlandish and understated. Having seen and handled innumerable watches during the duration of the fair, sifting through the archives to come to a decision on who led the pack required both patience and a healthy dose of decompression. Of course, there were some obvious frontrunners from the likes of H. Moser, Angelus, and something truly bonkers from Urwerk; however, there were a healthy number of releases both conservative and outlandish from all over this category. Sarpaneva Moonment Many of us in the industry have had a soft spot for Stepan Sarpaneva’s wild creations, but in 2018 he has upped the game by launching his first ever in-house caliber. The hand-wound caliber is partially exposed beneath Sarpaneva’s trademark cage-style dial, and features a unique interpretation of the brand’s iconic moonphase complication. Using vertically stacked optic fibre, and a solid rotating moonphase disc, the moonphase has a fascinating eclipse-like appearance that changes dramatically depending on…
The story in a second: Two stripes are all it takes to amp up the legacy and motorsports heritage of the Monaco. I’m willing to put the success of the Monaco down to two things. The Steve McQueen link, and the square shape. I’m sure there are numerous other factors, like the Calibre 11, at play. But really, it’s the fact that this watch is so distinctive, and was worn by someone so cool that the Monaco has stayed strong throughout the decades. The latest brightly striped Gulf Special Edition takes both these factors to the next level. The dial Typically with in-depth reviews I start with the case, as it provides the foundational framework of the watch. But today I’m going with the dial, because this watch is all about the dial, and not just because of those stripes. The square Monaco dial is already pretty distinctive, due to its shape and those matching, rounded-off registers. This version takes as a base the blue starburst finish of the Cal. 12, and the dial layout (horizontal indices FTW) of the heritage, Heuer-only model. Of course you might not notice that the first few times you look at it, as overlaid…
Editor’s note: Along with dive watches, we seem to have an insatiable fascination with pilot’s watches — even though pretty much no one who wears one knows how to fly, and even if we did, they’ve been largely superseded by modern cockpit instrumentation. But this is a case of practicality being beside the point, as Cam explores in his excellent list … First things first, just what is a pilot’s watch? While I think most of us could instantly recognise one, there isn’t an exact formula like there is when it comes to dive watches — and there’s a lot more to it than simply being a watch a pilot would wear. Ultimately (since you asked), a pilot’s watch is one that is instantly readable at a glance, whether in simple time-only form, or more complicated with functions that a pilot might find useful. And while we can’t all be Maverick or Iceman (no one wants to be Goose), we can still live out the fantasy and feel the need for speed with these … Longines Avigation BigEye We love it, you love it, even the who’s who of the watch industry love it, with this Avigation claiming “Revival of the Year”…