IWC and Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery- 

Since 2005, the collaboration with IWC and the Succession Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – d’Agay it is all about charity and Pilot watches. The Limited edition Saint-Exupéry watches are all slightly different from the normal collection from IWC. They are easy to spot with the tobacco brown dials and calfskin leather straps.

A part from the Saint Exupéry collection. There are the so called Charity watches from IWC. Not that easy to get hold off for us mere mortals. On 9 May 2010 at Sotheby’s “Important Watches” auction in Geneva, an IWC Big Pilot watch was sold of which only one exists in the world.  It’s Platinum predecessors were the Pilot’s Watch Chrono Automatic (2006) the Pilot’s Watch Automatic (2007) and in 2008 the series continued with the Pilot’s Watch UTC.

The Big Pilot’s Watch Edition Antoine de Saint Exupéry in platinum. 

This Big Pilot was fitted with a Platinum watch case, the tobacco brown dial and with engraving on the caseback picturing Saint Exupéry as a military pilot. The IWC-manufactured 51111 calibre with automatic Pellaton winding, 7-day power reserve, power reserve display, Breguet spring and date display make this timepiece one of the best in its class, a fact reflected in its reserve price. (€ 40.000.-)

We always try to have a few IWC Saint Exupéry edition watches due to the fact they are good collector pieces and they are quite stunning. Something we find very important with limited editions from any brand! You may want to buy a limited edition, but a watch that also has great esthetical beauty is worth twice as much.

A part from his aviation career Aintoine Saint Exupéry also was a well know author. For example his novel Wind, Sand and Stars which is strongly influenced by his 1935 crash in the Sahara desert, during a race for 150.000.- Francs. His near death experience surviving the crash with his co-pilot, and being dehydrated for 4 days is one of his many adventures.

This novel is a cool extra that is included with the sale of the Roségold IWC UTC center position in the picture.

Kind regards,