IWC Pilot Watches Review: Big Pilot, Mark XVIII, Saint Exupery | SwissWatchExpo

IWC Schaffhausen is known for its functional and beautiful tool watches - in particular, it’s Pilot’s Watches. As far back as the 1930's, IWC has been making robust aviation watches that are resistant to elements and fluctuations, but also functional and innovative in design. We reviewed pieces from IWC's premiere collection of pilot's watches - the Pilot, Mark and Saint Exupery collections. Learn more about these watches from our watch expert, Creed. Featured Watches: IWC Watches - Pilot, Mark and Saint Exupery https://www.swisswatchexpo.com/watche... Please Subscribe to get updates ▶️ https://swisswatchexpo.click/YouTube More Celebrity Watch Collections: http://swisswatchexpo.click/celebrity... More Rolex videos: http://swisswatchexpo.click/allabout-... More Watch Reviews: http://swisswatchexpo.click/fresh-fro... Instagram:   / swisswatchexpo   Shop watches here: https://www.swisswatchexpo.com --- Transcript: Fresh from the showcase here at SwissWatchExpo, today we're exploring IWCs line of pilot watches. Now the important thing about pilot watches is that so many of them are used and designed for the actual purpose of pilots in their use. The issue is that so many other manufacturers are pretenders. They are not actual pilot's watches. The IWC was designed as a pilot's watch from day one. There were some very important innovations that IWC incorporated into their watches, and a lot of people think they're just gimmicky because the large pilot came out in 2002 and that's the first recollection that people in the United States at least, remember the IWC pilot. That's the one that they usually think of. Most of all, this is the IWC big pilot. This particular watch is large enough. It's 46 millimeters, but it's actually more like 48 millimeters in terms of the way that the dial expands the outside edge of the watch. Now, the interesting thing about this particular watch is, there's a lot of little innovations. This is an in house movement. This is a manufacturer caliber IWC movement. It also has an eight day, well it's technically seven and a half day, power reserve. Now the indication on the dial is that it's only a seven day power reserve, but I know from personal experience that this watch will go almost eight days when fully wound. That's an interesting feature on this watch. Now, yours, of course may vary - temperature, humidity, all these other things influence and impact the ability of the watch to continue to keep moving throughout the week. This watch also has, the most famous portion, is the large crown, and the large crown was designed to so that a pilot could get their hands on this particular crown and adjust the dial or the things that they needed to adjust within the watch or even wind the watch when they had gloves on. Now, most pilots, of course, don't mess with the dial and they don't mess with the crown during flight. So in some sense of the word, it's just a little bit for this particular model, because it's an automatic wind watch, and because it's not a manual wind watch. It's a little bit gimmicky, but just the same, it's a throwback to an original watch that was designed and that watch was 55 millimeters large. So if you can imagine how much larger that watch would have been in the early days now that watch was designed as an observers watch, it was an onboard, it was a crew member or a flight crew. The purpose was on bombing runs, they would be able to see that dial even in low light conditions, because at that time, those particular watches didn't have that great of luminescence. They were, the radioactive loom, they just didn't - for hours and hours, they would not glow all that great. They were very, very dull so at certain lighting conditions they couldn't be seen. So the larger, the watch, the hands were painted bright white under that luminescence so that they can be seen even in low light conditions, regardless of whether they were glowing. So IWCs pilot watch history began in 1896 with a gold pocket watch. Now, incidentally, that particular gold pocket watch was not designed just to be a pilot's watch. It was just incidental that it was the first watch that was ever used during flight. Now Breitling has a really extended history in flight pilot watches as well, and we don't want to take away from that because they truly were an innovative pioneer in pilot's watches as well. But when we talk about the true nature of pilot watches, we talk about IWC. One of the things that IWC incorporated into their watches in the early days, and it still continues to this day, are shatterproof crystals, temperature control - extreme high and extreme low temperatures. The reason for that is because if you could imagine, pilots in the early days didn't have pressurized cockpits. #IWC #IWCWatches #IWCWatch #IWCPilot #IWCSchaffhausen #MensWatches #LuxuryWatches