All IWC's Pilot's Watches named after "Le Petit Prince" share three main features: the big vintage looking Arabic numerals, a different hands' style, and a glossy blue dial. Only one was missing from the roll call, the special edition of the complicated that for a long time has been one of the collection’s pillars, and to which many associate the collection itself, namely the IWC Pilot's Watch Double Chronograph Edition Le Petit Prince. In this occasion, IWC has distanced itself from the past, leaving to the side the aesthetical formality typical of a technical timepiece such as the Pilot's Split Seconds Chrono, and surrendering for the first time to a strong romanticism.
The split-seconds complication is almost overshadowed, as the true appeal is a mysterious, mainly esthetical complication that can be activated via the winding crown. The dial is sprinkled with stars, but not all of them are painted, those enclosed within the circle in the middle "emerge" from a white disc placed just beneath the dial itself. One of these seven stars is golden, and moves each day at random (it is therefore a "jumping" star) to one of the seven positions. A seemingly frivolous complication, that actually hides a deep connection to the watch’s case back, on which the Little Prince is reproduced while he is observing each of the seven stars, that actually represent the seven planets he visits during his journey.
The names printed on the case’s back are those of the characters that the Little Prince meets in the course of his journey, including the Rose, to which he goes back to at the end of his trip. The IWC Pilot's Watch Double Chronograph Edition Le Petit Prince is the most unexpected take among IWC’s limited editions with the name “Le Petit Prince”. It is a collector's piece (made in just 1000 pieces) aimed at aficionados of watchmaking and classic literature, and of a novel that, seventy-two years on, is more appealing than ever, and that adds a whole different appeal to the sober, understated Pilot's Watch Double Chrono, a timepiece that has essentially remained unchanged over the years. A single movement, caliber 79420, the ultimate chrono complication, even though you might never measure the times of a Grand Prix, as well as two timepieces (this and the standard model), that are very similar but offer two totally different experiences.
(Photo credit: courtesy of IWC)
Gaetano C. @Horbiter®
