IWC Pilot’s Watch Worldtimer

For anyone who flies across multiple time zones — whether it’s the pilot coordinating his flightplan or the business traveler scheduling a meeting with an international client — it’s essential to keep track of the time at home, at the destination, and maybe even elsewhere in the world. Hence, the invention of one of the most eminently useful complicated watches: the world timer. As part of its 2012 focus on its Pilot’s Watch collection, IWC Schaffhausen has introduced a world-time watch that even the most jetlagged globetrotter should be able to read and use with ease.

The new Pilot’s Watch Worldtimer (Ref. 326201) uses a peripheral 24-hour ring to show local times across the world’s 24 time zones simultaneously, replacing the semicircular window display of its predecessor, the Pilot’s Watch UTC, which showed the time in only one additional zone. The ring is divided into black and white sections, which make it easy to determine at a glance where in the world it is daytime and where it is night, and can be set easily by using the winding crown. The names of 23 world cities representing the global time zones appear on a city ring that surrounds the 24-hour ring; the other indications on the city ring, for “UTC,” or Greenwich Mean Time, and “Date Line” for the International Date Line, are in signal red.

Local time is indicated on the main dial, along with the date, which is in a triple-date-display window that echoes the design of a cockpit altimeter. Thanks to the date moving in sync, backwards and forwards, with the jumping hour hand, the weary traveler will find it a simple task to quickly reset the local time to his current location, even if he’s crossed the International Date Line. The watch’s movement, Caliber 30750, continues to run during the changeover, and the second time zone setting on the 24-hour ring remains unaffected.

The Worldtimer is still emphatically an IWC Pilot’s Watch, with its arrowhead index at 12 o’clock, white Arabic numerals on the matte black dial, and Super-LumiNova-coated hands, in addition to the triple-date window with its signal-red pointer. Its brushed stainless-steel case is a hefty 45 mm in diameter and water-resistant to 60 meters. Like other watches in this high-flying family, it also has a soft iron inner case that protects the movement against magnetic fields. The IWC Pilot’s Watch Worldtimer comes on a black alligator leather strap with a stainless steel folding clasp; the price is $9,650.

Technical Characteristics

Movement

Caliber: IWC 30750, automaticJewels: 31
Frequency: 28,800 vph (4 Hz)
Power reserve: 42 hours

Functions

24-hour display for world timer function

Date display

Central hacking seconds

Case, Dial & Hands

Material: stainless steel
Case diameter: 45 mmCase height: 13.5 mm
Crystal: convex sapphire crystal with nonreflective treatment on both sides
Water-resistance: 60 meters
Dial: matte black
Hands: White coated with Super-LumiNova

Straps & Buckles

Black alligator leather strap
Stainless steel folding clasp

Want to read more about historic and modern IWC Pilot’s Watches? Check out our book.

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