IWC Schaffhausen Flies High With The New Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Ceratanium

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Entering the collection as the first watch to be fully made of Ceratanium, the 41 mm chronograph from IWC offers an interesting combination of size, layout, style, and technology. That’s correct. If you like your watches to be a bit on the darker side and your pilot’s watches to be on the smaller side of the spectrum, this new 41 mm Ceratanium Top Gun chronograph should definitely be on your bucket list.

Ceratanium is a special compound that mixes the durability of titanium with the scratch-resistance qualities of ceramic. This desirable combination makes it just too good to be true for sports watches.

The New IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Ceratanium

For this new creation, IWC Schaffhausen has used Ceratanium for the case, pushers, and crown. While the case back is see-through and employs a tinted crystal. Seen through this crystal is IWC’s 69385 chronograph movement, a similar mechanism to that found in the 41 mm Chronograph Spitfire.

Essentially based on the 69370, which inturn is based on the ETA 7750, the calibre 69385 is an automatic column-wheel chronograph mechanism with a day-date display and a chronograph that can measure up to 12 hours.

The Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Ceratanium comes fitted to a black textile strap with a matching Ceratanium buckle.

Getting Into The Details

The watch comes fitted in a 41.10 mm wide and 14.50 mm thick Ceratanium case with a see-through case back. The black dial with its tinted white markings, or grey in simpler words, offers a unique display of time. The 100-meter water resistance is pretty great for an aviation centric timepiece and the black textile (NATO) strap is like cherry on the cake.

The movement used in the watch is the IWC 69385 offering features such as hours minutes, seconds, day, date, 12-hour chronograph. The automatic winding machine offers 46 hours of power reserve, all while running at a frequency of 4 Hz.

Honest Opinion

The IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Ceratanium does a great job at carrying the legacy of the Pilot’s Watch legacy forward. The colours on the dial are a bit questionable. Some watch enthusiast might even say it is bit of a hiccup in IWC’s quest for attaining maximum efficiency.

The dial does have ample luminosity so legibility in the dark is not an issue. However, day-time time viewing does have its demerits. Although there is a clear-cut demarcation for sub dials and markings on the dial, the grey on black theme does offer an atypical display.