IWC UTC Edition Antoine de Saint Exupery limited edition watch

The Swiss watch manufacture will soon start selling its new IWC UTC Edition Antoine de Saint Exupery limited edition automatic watch.

It’s not the first time that IWC pays homage to one of the best French writers of 20th century who was also a successful aviator.

Joining the French Air Force in 1939, Exupery died in July 1944 when his Lockheed P38 Lightning plane disappeared somewhere over the Mediterranean Sea during a reconnaissance flight.

Two years ago the company unveiled a limited edition of its IWC Pilot’s Watch Chrono-Automatic Edition Antoine de Saint Exupery (Ref. IW3717).

Selling a total of 1931 (the year that his Night Flight book was published) watches, the Swiss manufacture perhaps decided to also commemorate the 65th anniversary of Exupery’s opus magnum: The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) novella that made him famous.

While the chronograph model featured the ETA Valjoux 7750-based Caliber 79320 automatic movement, this watch is powered by the IWC Caliber 30710 automatic movement.

Built on 23 jewels, beating at 28,800 bph and offering a power reserve of 42 hours, the movement is based on another ETA caliber: the well-known ETA 2892 with an added GMT module.

We have already seen this movement in the IWC Spitfire UTC model and, truth be told, the new IWC UTC Edition Antoine de Saint Exupery is actually the same Spitfire UTC, which is equipped with a new dial and a stamped solid case back.

The “UTC” part of its name means that the watch is capable of displaying a second time zone, which is indicated in an arc-shaped aperture at 6 o’oclock.

Limited to 1188 units in steel, 500 in rose gold (pictured,) and only 250 units in white gold, the watch is housed in a 44mm case with an AR-coated sapphire crystal and is water resistant up to 60 meters.

The rose gold version of this beautiful watch will be available at a price of €13,600, which is pretty much affordable for this kind of timepiece.

Photos: IWC

IWC UTC Edition Antoine de Saint Exupery limited edition watch specification:

Price range: €13,600 for the rose gold version
Movement: IWC caliber 30710, automatic
Complications: Date, second time-zone
Power reserve: 42 hours
Case material: steel, rose gold, white gold
Case diameter: 44mm
Case height: N/A
Dial: Chocolate brown
Water resistance: 60 meters
Strap: Brown leather strap
Crystal: Sapphire