Home » The Salon International De La Haute Horlogerie » SIHH 2014 Review – IWC Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month
In the year of the Aquatimer family, IWC presented its second largest timepiece in history, after the Big Pilot’s Watch of 1940. The new Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month (ref. IW379401) with its 49mm in diameter is the flagship of the new Aquatimer collection. The new watch is issued in the limited quantity of only 50 pieces available exclusively at IWC boutiques.
IWC Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month Watch Front
The watch’s massive case is crafted from 18-karat red gold and rubber-coated titanium and houses IWC’s new SafeDive internal/external unidirectional rotating bezel system.
The beating heart of the watch is the IWC-manufactured caliber 89801 mechanical chronograph movement that delivers a fairly generous power reserve of approximately 68 hours when fully wound. The self-winding mechanism with a flyback function is built on 51 jewels and has a beating rate of 28,800 vibrations per hour (4 Hz). The movement comes with a perpetual calendar and a large digital display for the date and month.
IWC Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month Watch
The in-house manufactured mechanism offers and it is protected against the ingress of water up to 100 meters (about 330 feet). The watch’s dial is shielded with convex sapphire glass with antireflective coating on both sides, while the sapphire-glass is used for the see-through case back. The casing ring, push-pieces and crown are crafted from rubber-coated titanium.
The dial of the Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month watch looks quite impressive. First of all, the luminescent coating on the hour and minute hands and indexes guarantees excellent legibility no matter how poor the visibility is. Further, the date and month discs located at 3 and 9 o’clock position have semi-transparent perforated covers that provide a view of the impeccable mechanism within. The designers took their inspiration for this element from the filter systems that are ubiquitous on all submarine vehicles.
IWC Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month Watch Dial Detail
Besides large double-digit displays for both date and month, there is also a smaller digital display for the leap year. The watch is also tooled with a flyback chronograph function with an easy-to-read sub-dial at the 12 o’clock position for hour and minute counters.
In order to advance its large month display discs, this newcomer requires more power than its mechanism can provide. For this reason, every night when the date display is advanced, the quick-action switch taps a little energy and stores it until the end of the month.
IWC Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month Watch Back
The transparent case back of the watch provides a view of the IWC-manufactured caliber which comprises 474 individual parts. Its rotor has a distinctly functional look and alludes to the reliability of research submarines. The second-largest watch in IWC’s history is teamed with a comfortable black rubber strap with alligator leather inlay, ending with a red gold pin buckle.
