When you mention fake IWC you have always referred to the most illustrious manufacturer of pilot’s watches of all time. IWC Pilot’s Watch Mark XX has arrived, very quietly, but its simple and clean lines represent perhaps, and for now, one of the most important 2022 novelties of the Schaffhausen brand.

If you are familiar with IWC pilot’s fake watches, the appearance of the Mark XX will be familiar to you.

This IWC Pilot continues the famous feats of the Mark 11 series: its “beauty” – if that is how you can call the extreme minimalism that characterizes it – continues to express itself in a timepiece designed for difficult tasks. This is what was once asked of a faithful companion of an aviator.

IWC Pilot’s Watch History
A step back, and a lot: we are in 1936 and, as if it had been given the ability to read in the near and nefarious future, IWC Schaffhausen was making its first Pilot’s Watch. With a shock-resistant glass, equipped with a rotating bezel with index for reading short times and moved by an anti-magnetic movement, with luminescent hands, indexes and numerals, it was a turnkey watch to go to war.

In 1940, when the conflict had already begun, the Big Pilot’s Watch took the field, a precision instrument in a huge 55 mm case: it was the only Swiss watch to “pass the test” of the strict criteria imposed by the Luftwaffe. We are in the era of the Beobachtunguhren, or B-UHR in short, but Michele Tonon talked about them in a surgical and in-depth manner in this article.

In 1948 the Mark 11 arrived with a movement embraced and protected by an internal soft iron case to avoid any magnetism that could interfere with the running precision.

The technology of the time imposed the role of an absolute measuring instrument on the aviator watch, which today is anachronistic but today these military watches represent a bridge with a glorious, unforgettable past.

IWC Pilot’s Watch Mark XX review
Password: “remove”. Time passes and the Pilot’s Watch Mark XX is even more minimalist. The full name and the Broad Arrow symbol have been removed from the dial.

This last touch is not a stylistic choice: the Mark XX is not part of British military equipment, therefore, without government authorization with that brand it would have been illegal to sell it in the UK.

Given that the United Kingdom is a rather important market for luxury watch brands, it is natural to think that IWC preferred to eliminate an important historical detail rather than being involved in an affair that if it had come out would have generated a negative impact for the brand throughout the world.

What you bring home is a 40mm classic cut sports watch made of stainless steel. The case has a sturdy construction and the dial is certainly not as sober as a three-hand evening, but you are facing the latest chapter of a legendary military watch collection.

Since a Pilot’s Watch is a serious matter, like most of its old brothers it has an internal soft iron case for shielding from the irradiation of magnetic fields, which of course would disturb the running precision even stopping the movement. It is waterproof up to 100 meters.

It has class, it is refined, it is very chic to wear on the wrist so I see it well as a watch to wear every day, but given its personality even in formal situations. The dial is available in both black and sunray blue, but if you want to know how I feel about it, only black exists here. Super-Luminova-coated hands and indexes are all very bright details – and although the window is a bit small, the date is also present.

In this case, we have one of their recent best in-house calibers, the 32111. It is self-winding, with a 120-hour power reserve. While you can’t see it as the stainless steel caseback with a beautiful engraving of a twin-engine plane hides it, the caliber is embellished with fine decorations such as perlage.

Featuring IWC’s EasX-CHANGE quick-change strap system, this watch is delivered with a classic thick leather pilot strap.

Price
5,600 euros.

Opinions
In a watchmaking forum, speak ill of an IWC Pilot’s Watch, especially a Mark, and you will be insulted instantly by dozens of fans.

Not everyone has the courage to spend a similar amount (for me it is absolutely adequate) for a watch that for a non-connoisseur is certainly not recognizable as a Rolex Oyster which, at the time of writing, costs an extra 250 Euro in the list. But do you want to put the king of pilot’s watches against the qualitative but simpler of the crowned ones?