It's true, we're here again to tell you about an IWC after so little time, but the IWC Pilot range deserves more than just an article by Horbiter. The IWC Top Gun reference 3880 is not much different from the same reference with the Miramar aesthetics, but even more than that, it is the emblem of the Top Gun family. For those who have not yet had the chance to meet Horbiter 🙂 and read the article on the Top Gun Miramar (which is always here!), and had little experience with the IWC brand, and you are fascinated, remember that IWC is synonymous with aviator's watch since 1940 and that the Pilot collection of the maison from Schaffausen is one the most admired and desired in the world. IWC has, for some years, signed a partnership agreement with the famous Fighter Weapons School in Miramar, school of excellence of the U.S. Air Force and has linked several models from its collection and inextricably to the Top Gun school:

What you see in the picture is, in our opinion, the most successful model of the entire Pilot Top Gun range, profoundly revised in 2012, and is one of those watches that, as we like to repeat on our pages, would be recognizable even without the IWC logo. In contrast to the Miramar, the IWC Top Gun Chrono Flyback comes with a ceramic matte instead of a glossy case, which best fits with the vaguely military watch destination. And it is on the case and its uniqueness that we want to reflect on today, because it's easy to say "ceramic" almost superficially, while its implementation is very exclusive and also explains the high price tag of this watch. IWC pioneered the use of ceramics when, in 1986, launched the Da Vinci Chrono, looking for a material scratch-proof and resistant to "aging", the dream of every maison to make the serum for eternal youth:

Ceramic-1986.jpg" rel="prettyPhoto">because a watch that does not scratch is eternal, a real pleasure to the sight and to the touch and a collector knows that. IWC has made it ??working the zirconium powder (oxide), coloring it black, bringing it to high temperatures and then cooling it and work it to the diamond through a complex process that takes several steps to get this wonder:

all in all  in an elegy to technology and lightness, enclosed by a case back of Grade 5 Titanium as are the chrono push-pieces and crown. Now perhaps you will be more aware of the fact that the 46 mm in the IWC Top Gun Chrono Flyback deserves the same attention of the automatic in-house movement caliber 89365 and its Flyback function, with its 68-hour Power Reserve, and the dial with the second hand chronograph with military jet- shaped barbell in red.

(Photo credit: IWC.com, Google, Horbiter®'s official photo-shooting @Trucchi Orologeria)

Gaetano C.@Horbiter®

@Gaetano Cimmino