New Prince Reigns - IWC Le Petit Prince Announcement

IWC have announced the arrival of two new watches, both dedicated to the best-selling novel Le Petit Prince. Paying homage to the exploratory travels of the prince and the heart-touching life lessons that he learns on the way, the watches aren't going to intrigue just literary nerds but will draw appreciation from a variety of collectors — as have the previously launched models from the collection. Even if I say so myself; a recent visit to the IWC section at a popular store might've made me fall in love with one of their creations, but that's a story for another day...

The recently launched duo is comprised of the Big Pilot's Watch 43 Tourbillon Le Petite Prince and the Big Pilot's Watch Perpetual Calendar Tourbillon Le Petite Prince. Both are finished in blue (albeit with a different shade), numbered and limited, come with an in-house movement, and have a sapphire glass back with The Little Prince perched atop an asteroid.

Big Pilot's Watch 43 Tourbillon Le Petit Prince

The simpler of the new Tourbillon watches, this one has a 43 mm platinum case, is limited to 150 pieces, and has a tourbillon at 6 o'clock. It has a brown strap (calfskin) complete with a platinum closing clasp. The deep blue dial itself has rhodium plated hands, Super-LumiNova numbers, IWC's 82905 calibre and 80 hours of power reserve.

Big Pilot's Watch Perpetual Calendar Tourbillon Le Petit Prince

The perpetual calendar complication complements the flying tourbillon and makes this 46.5 mm case watch unique. It's also the first Le Petite Price timepiece by IWC that's made in ceramic. Like the Big Pilot's Watch 43 Tourbillon, it's also finished in blue, but this time, it's not just the dial but the case and the rubber strap, too. Justifiably fancier inclusions are the 18-carat-gold-made crown and case back ring.

It's a busy dial with the tourbillon at 12 o'clock and three sub-dials, each designated a feature, in addition to a four-digit year display. Clockwise from the right, you have the date and power reserve in one, month and perpetual moon display in the second, and the final left-most dial shows the day of the week. It is powered by IWC-made 51950 calibre. The perpetual calendar will insert a leap year automatically and the deviation after 577.5 years will be of a day in the calendar.

Wow.

For those keen on buying either, the Big Pilot's Watch 43 Tourbillon Le Petit Prince is the Ref. IW329501 while the Perpetual Calendar Tourbillon Le Petit Prince is Ref. IW504901.