Adorning the caseback, located within the aforementioned highly polished ring, is an engraved depiction of a Junkers JU-52, framed with the description “One out of 500.”
Complementing the finely chiseled features of this horological beau is a black alligator leather strap, partnered with a brushed steel folding clasp.
The movement:
The IWC manufacture Caliber 89365 is self-winding, has a frequency of 28,800 vph (4 Hz), features 35 jewels and has an impressive power reserve of 68 hours.
This is a flyback chronograph offering additional functionality. Pressing the push-piece at 2 o’clock starts/stops the stopwatch function, typical of many chronographs. Once the chronograph has been stopped, pressing the push-piece at 4 o’clock resets the chronograph. However, by having a flyback function this IWC model offers a useful additional detail, making it ideal for timing consecutive events. Whilst the stopwatch is running, the wearer can press the push-piece at 4 o’clock and the chronograph will stop, reset and restart in one simple, user-friendly process.
Closing remarks:
IWC creates watches “Engineered for Men” and often its literature uses masculine vocabulary to describe its array of varied models. However, I have to describe this as a “beautiful” watch. This may sound like a word more applicable to a feminine timepiece, but it is one that freely left my lips when I cradled the watch in my hands during my recent visit to the IWC Boutique in Harrods.
However, to purely discuss the aesthetic attraction of this timepiece would be to overlook the raison d’être for the creation of pilots’ watches in the first place. They were always intended to supplement cockpit instrumentation and aid the pilot in his occupational role. The need to be easily interpreted is fundamental and, in this regard, the IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition “JU-AIR” magnificently fulfills its brief. This is a timepiece free of the extraneous and delivers all that is necessary for a role in the cockpit. Indeed, just in the way the JU-52 focused on the essentials for flight, this charming IWC chronograph adopts the same approach.
Technical Specifications:
- Model: IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition “JU-AIR”
- Reference: IW387809
- Case: Stainless steel; diameter 43 mm; height 15.5 mm; water-resistant to 60 meters; sapphire crystal front and solid caseback
- Functions: Hours; minutes; small hacking seconds; date; flyback chronograph
- Movement: Caliber 89365, self-winding movement; frequency 28,800 vph (4Hz); 35 jewels; power reserve of 68 hours
- Strap: Black alligator leather strap with stainless steel deployant clasp
Acknowledgement:
I would like to thank Harrods, for kindly providing access to this remarkable timepiece.
My uncle wore Schaffhausen engineer in the 70’s, my father had one in the 80’s
but let’s call a spade a spade…
Who was IWC producing watches between 1938 and 1944 … lets not glorify historical mistakes …