The Beauty of the Beast - the IWC Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date Month
IWC will bring no less than 9 new Aquatimer watches to showcase at SIHH 2014. We will feature them all soon, but for now let's start with the biggest of them all, the IWC Aquatimer Perpetual Digital Date Month.
Firstly its size. Let's call a spade a spade, this really is a huge watch - 49mm across and 19mm high. Secondly it has a case which is made from rubber-clad titanium and red gold and its wealth of on-dial indications mean that some of the readability that you would expect from a diver's watch is compromised. Ask any diver if they need to dive with a timepiece which promises to need no date adjustments until the next Secular year, one which also packs in a flyback chronograph function and they will admit that these are not essentials. (Note by Co-Editor - if you need to know what month it is while diving, then you've been down there too long....) Ask the same diver if he'd like this one in his collection and he'd have it strapped to his wrist in a jiffy. A watch more than capable of safe diving but not a diver's watch in the ordinary sense perhaps?
It features small hacking seconds and a leap year display at 6 o'clock. The hours and minutes of the flyback chronograph combine in a totalizer at 12 o'clock. The large double digit day and month displays also allow for a look-see through to the discs via an open-worked honeycomb mesh. A newly developed SafeDive system which employs both internal and external unidirectional rotating bezels has been created for this year's Aquatimers adding new technology to an all-new collection. Inside the IWC-manufactured 89801 calibre copes with all the power-guzzling indications while still producing a power reserve of 68 hours.
The beauty of this particular beast lies with its engineering. IWC are supremely adept at creating and perfecting wristwatch micro-mechanics, and this top of the range Aquatimer showcases their ability to do so.
The IWC Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date Month will be limited to 50 pieces.