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In honor of the Patrouille Suisse, a Swiss Air Force display team that has wowed audiences at air shows for decades, watch company IWC Schaffhausen is releasing a special edition watch for 2015. Based on an iconic watch first made in 1940, the Big Pilot’s Watch Edition “Patrouille Suisse” pays tribute to the team’s passion for aviation that has brought crowds joy for so many years. The watch is made with the aviator in mind, with oversized hands and numbers, and an arrowhead index instead at 12 o’clock. The watch can run for over 7 days thanks to a large automatic movement, made in-house by IWC, and features a power reserve display at 3 o’clock to ensure the pilot knows how much time remains until it will stop. This display is balanced with a small seconds display at 9 o’clock, and the circle is completed with a date display at 6. The movement is protected against magnetic field interference thanks to its soft-iron cage, ensuring reliability in the air. The crown of the watch is noticeably larger than average, an homage to the early days of flight when pilots would often need to wear thick gloves during flight that made it difficult to wind and set watches on the fly. And on the back of this elegant tribute is an engraving of three jet planes based on the Northrop F-5E Tiger II, the planes the Patrouille Suisse used to perform in. There is also an inscription: “Tribute to Patrouille Suisse,” and a numbering on the back case to indicate the exclusivity of the limited edition, as only 250 will be made. A noble nod to one of aviation’s most endearing aerobatic teams, the watch is as precise as one of their famous aerial displays.
