The word Top Gun evokes in our memory the image of a pilot capable of maneuvering fighter jets with exceptional skill. The real Top Guns are in fact those pilots who graduated from the US Navy Fighter Weapons School, established in 1969 at the Naval Air Base of Miramar, with the task of training the flight instructors who in turn will be able to train the entire US Navy fleet.
“TOP GUN” is the nickname that was given to the combat flight school in the late 1960s by its founders, a name that became famous thanks to the extraordinary success of the 1986 film Top Gun, directed by Tony Scott with the participation of Tom Cruise.
The IWC Schaffhausen maison has always celebrated and kept alive this myth, with its Pilot’s Watch Top Gun Edition dedicated to the legendary Navy Fighter Weapons School program of the US Navy.
They are made with solid and resistant materials, designed to withstand even the most extreme gravitational forces to which fighter pilots can be subjected during aerial combat maneuvers.
IWC produced the first Pilot’s Watch over 80 years ago and has since acquired vast savoir-faire in the design and manufacture of instruments, tailored to the needs of aviators, so much so that in 2007 it became an official licensee of the US Navy, attributing to these timepieces are named after the legendary Navy Fighter Weapons School, Top Gun precisely.
Extremely innovative and resistant materials
In no other environment are the requirements as stringent as in naval aviation. For this reason the IWC Top Gun Edition are made with extremely robust and resistant materials such as titanium and ceramic, to withstand the extreme stresses to which pilots are subjected in the fighter jets.
Cases are created with high-tech ceramic, which is characterized by extremely pure raw materials and production processes that are particularly sophisticated. The starting materials are polycrystalline powders mixed with different auxiliary materials to form a homogeneous mass, modeled and finally synthesized at high temperatures in the oven.
With a value on the Vickers scale second only to diamond, this ceramic is one of the hardest materials on Earth. Lightness, hardness and scratch-resistance make this material ideal for daily use within the confined space of the cockpit, while the opaque color ensures pilots are not distracted by the reflection of sunlight on the watch. The materials used are also highly resistant to corrosion, a feature that makes these timepieces perfect for long missions on an aircraft carrier, exposed to the salty and humid air of the sea.
As we have anticipated, that of the IWC Pilot Top Gun is an innovation that has continued for more than 80 years. Precisely in the wake of this continuous innovation, the Schaffhausen-based maison has introduced Ceratanium®, a new and revolutionary material based on a special alloy of titanium and ceramic.
After milling, turning and drilling, all the components of the case are heated in the furnace. During this process in the blast furnace, oxygen diffuses inside the material and then leaves room for a phase transition. As a result, the surface takes on properties similar to those possessed by ceramics.
This process makes Ceratanium® both light and resistant like titanium, but hard and scratch-resistant like ceramic. The surface is inextricably linked to the material and does not flake even if the watch hits another object. Thanks to this new material, all the components of the watch case can be produced for the first time with a jet-black finish.
Leveraging on its know-how and making use of this extraordinary material, IWC opens 2022 with two interesting innovations, variants on the IWC Top Gun Chronograph theme: IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Lake Tahoe and IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Woodland Green.
Pilot’s Watch Top Gun Edition Chronograph Lake Tahoe
The Pilot’s Watch Chronograph appears for the second time with a white ceramic case. The first version, however, was not commercial in nature; a set of IWC Pilot’s Chronograph White was awarded to members of the Mission to Orbit mission, and titled Edition “Inspiration 4”.
We can therefore define the Lake Tahoe version as the first variant of normal production of the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph with a white ceramic case and a clear military look that makes it deserve its name “Top Gun Edition”.
Tahoe is the name of a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains, on the border between California and Nevada, near Naval Air Station Fallon. It is the training base for Top Gun school’s top pilots, whose white uniform has inspired the white color of the case.
Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Woodland Green
The Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Woodland Green, if possible, is even more sophisticated than the previous one, in this version in fact both the case and the dial are in dark matte green ceramic, while the chrono pushers, crown and caseback are in Ceratanium, as for the Tahoe version. ; to underline its strong military inspiration, the Woodland Green mounts a pin buckle in place of the deployant present on the Tahoe version.
Both the Lake Tahoe and the Woodland Green share the same technical architecture, consisting of a ceramic case with a diameter of 44.5 mm, 15.7 mm thick and water resistant to 6 bar, which houses the in-house caliber 69380 at 33. Rubies with Côtes de Genève and perlage finish, a heart beating at 28800 vibrations per hour (4Hz) with a power reserve of 46 hours at full charge. Point of excellence of all Pilot’s Watches is the exceptional luminescence in the dark.
Innovative also in marketing, to unveil the new collection, IWC entered the metaverse for the first time. Grainger-Herr held his Watches & Wonders keynote in an engaging web3 environment. IWC also announced the creation of an exclusive platform, which will allow members to unlock unique and tailored experiences in both the virtual and physical world.
What can I say, maybe the road to becoming a fighter jet pilot is long and not for everyone, but certainly the emotion you will feel wearing one of these new IWC Top Gun Edition will be great.
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To see more models of the Pilot’s Watch Top Gun Edition, visit IWC official website.
