Saint Exupery's Timepiece

'If you want to build a ship don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.'
Antoine de Saint Exupery


The gorgeous limited edition of the IWC Pilot's chronograph was created as a commemoration to the French writer and pilot, to be more precise, the pioneer, Antoine de Saint Exupery. The history reveals that on July 31, year 1944, the Major (that is Exupery, who was a major of the French air force) took off from the United States airbase located on Corsica Island. He was going to have an investigation flight over the occupied part of France. Exupery didn't come back. A lot of legends have been created since then about Exupery, who is respected as a French national hero.

This year wasn't chosen by chance: Exupery's first novel called 'Night flight' was published seventy five years ago, that's why IWC Company chose the date of publication - year 1931 as the opportunity for a special limited edition of IWC's new mechanical Pilot's Chronograph. This collection is limited to 1,931 pieces which is the exact number corresponding to the year of novel publication. The IWC's new Pilot's Chronograph was designed to reveal the very essence of the romantic and daring writer-pilot, whose audacious nature always longed for freedom, creativity and adventures.

This watch features a tobacco colored dial to emphasize the very style of the pilots of that time. The entire design of the new IWC chronograph serves to render in color that sepia nuance we used to observe in early aviation movies. The rough hands of the pilot lay on the control column, with his fingers colored by tobacco smoke - this is the image that comes to the head while looking at the new Pilot's Chronograph.

In addition to the above mentioned, the IWC chronograph has got a protection against magnetic fields, as well as the automatic winding system. Another important feature is a cumulative time of the watch recording up to twelve hours. What's more, the back case of the watch got an engraving portraying the flying hero.

Some of Pilot's chronographs are going to be exhibited at the auction of the 'Vol de Nuit' association. These timepieces are not going to be for sale, for they are made of platinum.

Antoine de Saint Exupery

Antoine de Saint Exupery has left a legacy which is really worth exploring. He has become, of course unintentionally, the posthumous creative symbol for IWC Schaffhausen. That's also a tribute to the IWC Company, for the Company's support helped us keep in mind and be grateful for a great man and his passion.

Saint Exupery was an adventurer, because he was a person of the romantic mentality. The only limit for him was the limit of man's yearning and longing. Exupery's writing legacy sparked the imagination of coming generations. He was an air navigator, exploring the heights of the sky.


Antoine de Saint Exupery was born in 1900 to a family of French provincial noble man. He grew up in his family castle and got his education in France and Switzerland. He also studied architecture for a while at the Fine Arts School.

His first flying experience occurred in 1012. His life's defining moment took place when Antoine was twenty one, when he entered the French military service. He attended Strasbourg's flight school.


Exupery managed to publish his first story called 'Aviator' in 1926 in a French literary magazine. Not long afterwards he started flying mail delivery for a commercial firm Aeropostale. He flew mainly in the region of North Africa for several years and later in 1928, he became a manager of the remote airfield situated in the Sahara Desert. He was passionate about the desert and a year later Exupery wrote his first novel called 'Southern Mail', which was dedicated to the audacity of early pilots.

The second Exupery's novel was written after he moved to South America a year later. He worked there as a director of the company flying mail through Andes. His second novel 'Night flight' was based on the experience he got there. The novel's name 'Night flight' is explained by the perils which were considered necessary, elsewise the speed advantage of airmail delivery was lost during the night time to ships and trains. The pilots neglected warning to the mail speed delivery to get a commercial benefit.

In 1944 Saint Exupery made his last take off from the airport in Sardinia. Fifty six years passed from that moment when his plane was found in the Mediterranean Sea.

All the timepieces are like symbols. Being analog instruments, watches serve for symbolical displaying of time. However, timepieces also put up with craft, art and history. There is a new timepiece by IWC Company showing that history. This timepiece makes the legacy of the great adventurer and his great adventures to be a property of the people.


'It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.'
Antoine de Saint Exupery