June 16, 2015: IWC Schaffhausen has launched the new Pilot’s Watch Double Chronograph Edition “Le Petit Prince”, complete with an innovative jumping star display for the day of the week. Every day, one of seven stars in the inner circle of the dial lights up in gold to symbolize the visit of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s little prince to a different planet. The same seven stars are also engraved as a decoration on the back of the watch and include the name of the inhabitant with whom the little prince is currently passing the time.
The watch is inspired by the popular book ‘The Little Prince’, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which is a poetic tale about a pilot stranded in the desert who meets a young prince fallen to Earth from a tiny asteroid. A king who rules over a fictitious realm, a businessman who believes he owns the stars, a geographer who never leaves his desk: having abandoned his own tiny asteroid in search of a friend, the little prince meets various inhabitants of other planets who lead strange lives.
“Our partnership with the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Youth Foundation has already inspired us to create many Pilot’s Watch special editions,” says Georges Kern, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen. “And since the tale of ‘The Little Prince’ celebrated its 70th birthday two years ago, we’ve also dedicated a number of models to the title figure. This latest version not only has an impressive split-seconds mechanism but also a rather whimsical star element that might not be noticed at first glance.”
The midnight blue dial with its characteristic cockpit design has a surprising feature: a jumping star display is arranged inside the faint line of the circle at its centre. Each day of the week, this captivating day display lights up a different star in glittering gold. However, the change does not take place in any particular order: the gleaming golden star appears to jump at random between the seven different positions on the dial.
The owner of the watch, however, can decide which star on the dial is illuminated on which day of the week by using the crown to make the golden star jump to another position.
The sophisticated chronograph split-seconds hand complication is now licensed to fly in the Pilot’s Watch special edition “Le Petit Prince”. Also known as a double chronograph, this mechanism has two stop-watch seconds hands mounted one on top of the other which allow the owner to reliably record intermediate times, even within the same minute.
The Pilot’s Watch Double Chronograph Edition “Le Petit Prince” has all functions including automatic winding, the time of day, date, weekday in the form of a jumping star display, small hacking seconds, chronograph with aggregate time recording up to 12 hours, split-seconds function, sapphire glass with anti-reflective coating on both sides which is secured against drops in pressure, as well as the soft-iron inner case found in IWC’s Pilot’s Watches as protection against magnetic fields. The midnight blue dial underscores the watch’s sporty yet elegant character while the Super-LumiNova coating on the hands and appliqués guarantees excellent legibility, even in the dark. Only 1,000 examples of the watch are made. A matte brown calfskin strap with decorative beige stitching adds the final touch.
