When you mention Fake IWC you have always meant the most illustrious manufacturer of pilot’s watches of all time. IWC Pilot’s Watch Mark XX has arrived, very quietly, but its simple and clean lines perhaps represent, for now, one of the most important 2022 novelties from the Schaffhausen brand.
If you are familiar with IWC pilot watches, the look of the Mark XX will be familiar to you.
This IWC Pilot continues the famous exploits of the Mark 11 series: its “beauty” – if you can call the extreme minimalism that characterizes it – has always continued to express itself in a timepiece designed for difficult tasks. This is what was once asked of a faithful companion of an aviator.
History IWC Pilot’s Watch
A leap back, and by a long way: we are in 1936 and, as if it had been given the ability to read into a near and nefarious future, IWC Schaffhausen created its first Pilot’s Watch. With shock-resistant glass, equipped with a rotating bezel with index for reading short times and driven by an antimagnetic movement, with luminescent hands, indices and numerals, it was a turnkey watch for going to war.
In 1940, once the conflict had already begun, the Big Pilot’s Watch took to the field, a precision instrument in an enormous 55 millimeter case: it was the only Swiss watch to “pass the test” of the severe criteria imposed by the Luftwaffe. We are in the era of the Beobachtunguhren, or B-UHR for short, but Michele Tonon spoke about them in a surgical and in-depth manner in this article.
In 1948 the Mark 11 arrived with a movement embraced and protected by an internal soft iron case to prevent any magnetism from interfering with the precision of the movement.
The technology of the time imposed on the aviator’s watch the role of an absolute measuring instrument, which nowadays is anachronistic but these military watches, today, represent a bridge with a glorious, unforgettable past.
IWC Pilot’s Watch Mark XX review
Password: “remove”. Time passes and the Pilot’s Watch Mark XX is even more minimalist. The full name and Broad Arrow symbol have been removed from the dial.
This last touch is not a stylistic choice: the Mark XX is not part of British military equipment, so without government authorization under that mark it would have been illegal to sell it in the UK.
Given that the United Kingdom is a rather important market for luxury watch brands, it is natural to think that IWC preferred to eliminate an albeit important historical detail rather than see itself implicated in an affair which, if it had come out, would have generated a negative impact on the brand throughout the world.
What you take home is a classic-cut 40mm stainless steel sports watch. The case has a robust construction and the dial is certainly not as sober as a three-hand evening watch, but you are faced with the latest chapter in a legendary military watch collection.
Since a Pilot’s Watch is a serious thing, like most of its old brothers it has an internal case in soft iron to shield it from the radiation of magnetic fields, which would naturally disturb the precision of the movement and even stop the movement. It is waterproof up to 100 meters.
It has class, it is refined, it is very chic to wear on the wrist so I see it well as a watch to wear every day, but given its personality also in formal situations. The dial is available in both black and sunray blue, but if you want to know how I feel about it, there is only the black color here. Hands and indexes covered with Super-Luminova are all very luminous details – and although the window is a little small, the date is also present.
For me, three are the traits that most characterize IWC: the production of excellent in-house movements, the use of movements based on common and reliable Sellitas, and for the same complication the rather high price.
In this case, we have one of their recent best in-house calibers, the 32111. It is self-winding, with a power reserve of a whopping 120 hours. Even if you can’t see it as the stainless steel caseback with a beautiful engraving of a twin-engine plane hides it, the caliber is embellished with fine decorations such as perlage.
Equipped with IWC’s EasX-CHANGE quick strap change system, this watch is delivered with a classic pilot’s strap made of thick leather.
Opinions
In a watchmaking forum, speak badly of an IWC Pilot’s Watch, especially a Mark, and you will be instantly insulted by dozens of enthusiasts.
Not everyone has the courage to spend a similar amount (for me it is absolutely appropriate) for a watch that for a non-connoisseur is certainly not recognizable as a Rolex Oyster which, at the time of writing, costs 250 Euros more on the list. But do you want to pit the king of pilot’s watches against the albeit qualitative but simplest of the crowned ones?
Like its predecessors, the Pilot’s Watch Mark XX is the Holy Grail of the pilot’s watch, genuine, with a pleasant appearance and with an illustrious history behind it.
The large dial (to be chosen absolutely black) and its extreme legibility with the time marked by the faithful IWC sword hands are a guarantee of authenticity. It is not a limited edition.