Swiss watch manufacture Replica IWC has created the third exclusive pilot's watch to join its 'Edition Antoine de Saint Exupery' collection. The timepiece honors the name of the French author and his famous book called "Terre des Hommes" (Wind, Sand and Stars) introduced in 1939. The novel is a powerful hymn of to aviation and the challenging conditions of the pioneering era.

The IWC UTC Edition Antoine de Saint Exupery limited edition watch has incorporated the UTC world time display, developed by the company 10 years ago. The single platinum edition of the model will be auctioned for a charity cause.

In "Terre des Hommes" Antoine de Saint Exupery writes about an amazing crash-landing in the Libyan Desert. The flight that was meant to take him from Paris to Saigon, setting a new record for the route, had been over. The writer colorfully describes the survival in the desert. The book also narrates about the moving story of survival by his friend Henri Guillaumet, who crashed in the snowy Andes.

No wonder, the new IWC pilot's watch, paying tribute to the life of the Antoine de Saint Exupery, features a typical pilot's complication - the UTC display. 'UTC' stands for Universal Time Coordinated. Nowadays, it is used as the time standard, based on Greenwich Mean Time, for calculating international flight schedules. It is important to mention that UTC was designed to satisfy this need long before world time watches became popular.

While the reference time in the UTS display window is unwaveringly running - whether the Universal Time, or also the local time at your home town - you can easily adjust the actual time zone for the current location in one-hour steps with help of the crown. The adjustment is unlimited, both forwards and backwards, and thus in any flight direction.

The date display of the IWC pilot's watch is synchronized with the jumping hour display. It returns with it to the previous day when you adjust it backwards - or advances to the following day when you adjust the hour display beyond midnight. This mechanism allows to use the different zone times straightforward, perfectly corresponding to aeronautical demands.

Paying homage to the pioneering era of aviation, the IWC UTC Edition Antoine de Saint Exupery limited edition watch is available together with an exclusive, limited edition of the novel "Terre des Hommes" published by Gallimard in Paris, the original publisher of the book.

The number of the timepiece in the limited edition reflects the year of publication of the novel - 1939. This includes 1188 stainless steel pieces, 500 rose gold pieces, 250 white gold pieces and a single platinum piece to be auctioned for a charitable cause to offer support to the SIPAR organization in Cambodia. For 25 years, the organization has been providing schools with libraries and translating children's books into the national language. In fact, the first book translated by SIPAR turned out to be "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint Exupery.

The case of the Replica IWC UTC Edition Antoine de Saint Exupery limited edition measures 44mm in diameter. The dial of the pilot's watch reveals the same tobacco brown color as the previously developed models. The initial "A" of de Saint Exupery's signature completes the dial, being placed at 9 o'clock.

The watch's face is protected by a convex, antireflective sapphire glass is secured against pressure drops. The case construction has incorporated a screw-down back and a screw-in crown, boasting 60-meter water-resistance.

The IWC pilot's watch is equipped with IWC 30710 calibre automatic movement, beating at 28,800 vibrations per hour, providing centre seconds hand, seconds stop function and date display. One more advantage is a 42-hour power reserve. The soft iron inner case protects the mechanism against strong magnetic fields.

The exclusive timepiece is coupled with a brown buffalo leather strap featuring light-colored backstitching.

The case back of the Replica IWC pilot's watch reveals an engraving of robust Latecoere 25, abbreviated to "Late 25". Antoine de Saint Exupery and his colleagues flew in this airplane as airmail pilots, especially in Argentina and Chile.