Story of an Icon: IWC Mark Series Pilot Watch History | Armand The Watch Guy 

Great review, I am lucky to have a 1952 IWC Mark XI pilots watch. I bought one for £10 ($13) back in the 1980s when they were been sold as ex-surplus in the Exchange and Mart.

Thank you for this. With the amount of watch content on the web, I thought good summaries of the Mark series would be everywhere but I was wrong. This is exactly what I was looking for and nothing else comes close.

Excellent historical review, well done and extremely enjoyable. Into watches for far to long to mention I’d longed for an IWC seemingly forever, continually searching for that just right, sweet spot piece. It finally materialized in the Mark XVIII Laureus, love at first sight/try on and that it supports a wonderful charity, well, so much the better. Lots of hate out there for the brand, I sense the haters have never owned one or compared them to other Swiss or Japanese brands in the same price range. Their loss. IWC is a luxury brand and additionally an aspirational brand; as emotional as it is a logical purchase, you will stretch and it will hurt as does any luxury procurement. The quality is there for those who recognize it, not flamboyant pieces by any means they speak quietly to their owners, not to ninety five percent of those passing by who, by the way, could care less what you’re wearing on your wrist. Couldn’t be happier with mine and for those thinking better to buy a Stowa or Laco I’ll just say don’t delude yourselves, they are not even close. Well I know, I own both brands, enjoy both brands for what they are but absolutely love the Mark XVIII Laureus. It’s just that simple. Cheers.

I own IWC Mark XVIII Titanium for about 4 years, and I love it. Very nice design, cool colour pallet, very light (compared to steel), and very accurate. I did not look much into history of the series before buying it, so that was really great to watch. The only thing that could make it better for me, is if it included day of the Week dial, and have 24 hour face, instead of 12 hour.

Thanks for the history lesson. I appreciate it...this is what I love about watches. They tell a story & are functional works of art.

Extremely detailed reviews! Really can tell u have done lots of research just for this video. Awesome effort... truly appreciated.

This is the finest review of the Mark series I’ve ever seen. Well done!

Thank you Armand for an excellent history of this line of IWC watches….just perfect for my education into military issued and military inspired timepieces…..perfect!

Love this video would be great to see this updated with the mark XX and also the spitfire being a more traditional watch

Very nice, drool worthy video. I appreciate these lengthy content rich productions very much.

Great history lesson. Appreciate the effort you put into all this research 👍🏻

Utterly fascinating a well researched! Having just got a Mark XVIII Heritage, it makes the watch a lot more pleasurable to learn the history of the Mark series. I will keep coming back to, and sharing, this video. Thank you!

Because of your video, I sealed the deal on my purchase of the xvi, thank you so much

great review, thanks, had one for 12 years , had many straps but watch going strong !

late into the game but I've subscribed because of this video. Thank you for your efforts. Hope they continue

I really love the 15 and 20

a wonderful article: many thanks

An interesting detail from this watch is that the Mark XV did have a heavily modified ETA 2892-2; Richard Habring while he worked for IWC (he now has his own brand) reworked the self-winding mechanism. ETA adopted Habring's refinements, which became the ETA 2892-A2. I think this gives IWC's use of the ETA2892-A2 a little more credibility as opposed to brands that just drop it in as a generic movement; IWC contributed technically to this movement. Unfortunately, it isn't clear that later IWC Mark watches (Mark XVI, XVII, XVIII) have any significant modifications or refinements to the ETA2892-A2 movement beyond the rotor. In fact, the Mark XVIII Heritage Titanium and Tribute to Mark 11 featured at the end of the video actually use IWC Cal. 35111, which is a Sellita SW300.

Thanks for the history lesson on the IWC Mark series pilot watches. Perhaps purely coincidental, but the Mark XII was a watch featured in a recent Hodinkee RU-vid interview with magician Dan White and his impressive, but relatively modest ongoing watch collection. So, I think perfect timing to get a better look at that Mark XII as well as the rest of the IWC models before and after that one.

I love the high end JLC movement on this most understated Mk x11

Mark XX looking interesting!

Great video sir..Thanks. Vertex watch is being made again but has the most bizarre purchase process.....

Love the old aircraft pics! Nice watches, prefer the "real" ones without the date, but guess they had to appeal to a different customer as the military would've switched to cheaper, more robust & more importantly more accurate quartz timepieces. Interesting video, Cheers 👍👍

Fascinating. Waiting to get my hands on the XX

Great video Armand. I guess I am a little late to this video but having just picked up the Smith's Navigator which is Eddie over at TimeFactors homage to the IWC mk11 makes enjoying your video of this iconic watch better. I know that you have been a fan of Smith's watches from TimeFactors and my is the PRS-48 Navigator an excellent watch. I mish you could get your hands on one for a review, it is that special of a watch. Thanks again, Brian.

Great video, man.

Thanks! I really enjoyed listening, looking and learning. What I really like about all these models is their superlative legibility. The prime function of a watch is to tell the time, something that is ignored by many watch designers. - I guess my preference would be for the latest model: I was more than mildly surprised to learn that the case for some was ceramic. I don't suppose that would do too well if dropped onto a hard surface! - At 11 minutes into the video (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-okbvcQVBPL4.html) the aeroplane shown at first confused me: I thought it was a Mirage and thought that the air force must be the French. Then I noticed the Australian Air Force emblem, and that made made me wonder if the Australians ever operated and flew Mirages: I researched it online and discovered that they did! I learn something new every day.

I picked up the Tribute to MK11 for $3900 USD here in Hong Kong. I love the history of the mark series. Will buy the bracelet separately one day.

Don’t see mention in the comments - the very large B Uhr were referred to as observation watches and worn by the navigator the pilot wore a chronograph. Those chronographs were set by the pilot in communication with a signal from the navigator. Those were the now famous watches with coin edge bevels and red pusher from the likes of Hanhart and Tutima

Admire your research time you must spend on this subject

Really well done.

Thanks! Very informative video

I have xv and i love it ❤

Great research as always! Contentious point though: the IWC was the most modern looking of the dirty dozen? They are all veeeery similar. Subjectively, I like my Buren variant!

Great video! A bit timely but well worth it. I'm just curious, why you didn't include the new spitfire? I feel this is the best modern iteration of the watch. Its a great size, modest for today's standards, in-house movement, not flashy or gimmekee but rather modest and subdued yet spot on.

I would be very interested to hear your opinion on the IWC Vintage Pilot which looks like a remake of the 1936.

I love modern IWC, but they’re about 50% overpriced. For 7k+ I’d rather invest in a Rolex.

Great video. I own the white dial mark xviii and love it.

When pilot watch cases reduce to 36mm and 38mm aren't they now field watches?

Quite a history Armand. Date on the tribute?

mines the Mark XV

Armand, great video, as usual. I am glad you took the time to go through the evolution of IWC Mark Series in such details. I do believe that the Mark XI, besides its great design, movement and history, represent great value for a military issued watch, seeing the astronomical prices fetched by issued Rolex' and Tudor's. Personally, I think there's also great value to be found in IWC Pilot's watches until the early 2000's: the Mark XII (which is fantastic, despite a relatively fragile JLC movement), the UTC, the Doppelchronograph 3713 and the 3706 chronograph. Completely agree that the Mark XV is the last classical Mark model (especially those with tritium), and it is the last I would own. It's downhill after that, when Kern went for marketing gimmicks and diluted the brand identity. The designs from Mark XVI onward make me cringe. And the lume quality on the Mark XVI is incredibly poor (I used to have a 3717 chrono of the same era, which I sold for that very reason). Kern's touch personified: heavy on marketing, light on authenticity, higher in price, lower in quality.

Always love the details you put in your video I look forward to every time I see you pop up. But your theme music for some reason is so depressing every time I hear it. :(

Good brand until it was acquired by Richemont, now just another rip off merchant

Thank you for the awesome roundup! I used to be a die-hard fan of IWC’s iconic, elegant, engineered and understated designs during the eighties, but I lost virtually all interest after their acquisition by Richemont and their oversized, short-lived, patchwork designs. The minimalist Mark XI will always be the definitive military watch to me just as the acclaimed Mark XII will always be the definitive understated men’s watch. I rarely wear my Mark XV, and If I wanted a true IWC today I’d look for it from Sinn. My latest and hottest IWC however is from Seiko: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4DIQXAKbKsM.html

Nice Video compilation. Good job! I am not a Fan of the mark series... To me the current Mark XVlll is the most overpriced watch i ever tried. You can get Fliegers from Stowa or Laco for fraction without making any compromise in quality and heritage. To sum up: IWC sucks!

Spending that much money to "look military", is pretty lame. What do military forces use today? Cheap, durable quartz. Dirty Dozens are pretty expensive, and hard to verify these days, but you can still get Smiths and Hamilton W10's for good prices. If you want the look, get the real thing.

I would be very interested to hear your opinion on the IWC Vintage Pilot which looks like a remake of the 1936.