Ref. IW502703 - Limited Edition of 250 Pieces
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subir fotos gratisSince 2008, IWC has regularly launched Pilot's Watches in honor of the famous story "Le Petit Prince" by French aviation pioneer and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. All "Le Petit Prince" watches boast blue dials. IWC is carrying on this tradition and now presents the latest highlight in blue: the Big Pilot's Watch Annual Calendar Edition "Le Petit Prince".
This timepiece in an 18kt white gold case not only has a blue dial but, for the first time in the history of IWC, also a blue movement: the IWC-manufactured caliber 52850 is visible through the sapphire displayback and gets its distinctive color from a coating with various metallic oxides.
50 years ago, IWC Schaffhausen created watches with blue dials. In doing so, the watchmaker from north-east Switzerland set off a design trend that has now spread throughout the entire watch industry. Around 120 references and limited special editions with blue dials have been launched in the six watch families and in various shades since 1967.
IWC often uses what is called physical vapour deposition (PVD) to manufacture blue dials. The PVD procedure allows extremely dense coatings to be created, which are only fractions of a micrometre thick. The dials are first galvanically nickel-plated and gold-plated. The actual PVD coating then follows, where they are steamed in a vacuum chamber with gaseous metal ions. The final color depends on the specific process properties and the coating thickness, among other things. As an alternative to PVD coating, special paints are also used to achieve the blue color on certain models.
