IWC Pilot's Watch Flyback Chronograph Top Gun Review

Today we'll be taking a look at a watch that I've owned two times. Looking back over twenty-five years of collecting watches I've never owned the same watch multiple times. This actually did happen with the IWC Pilot's Watch Flyback Chronograph Top Gun though. The Top Gun was originally given to me from the large watch resale site I had helped start decades ago as a thank you for work I had done over the years. Although I loved the watch, it didn't scratch my Big Pilot itch and I ended it trading it on a big Pilot. A few years later I ended up purchasing another one from a dealer to resell and ended up remembering how much I liked it and ended keeping it.

Before we get into the review of the Top Gun, let's first go over the history of IWC, a brand that has always been one of my favorites since I first started collecting watches. Over the years I've owned many IWCs and currently there are four in my personal collection.



IWC was actually founded by an American Engineer and watchmaker, Florentine Ariosto Jones, from Boston in Schaffhausen, Switzerland in 1868. Jones wanted to combine exquisite Swiss watchmaking craftsmanship with American production techniques to produce high-quality watches for the American market. Schaffhausen was picked to be the base of IWC since the town had a long tradition in watchmaking and the Rhine River provided ample power to produce electricity. IWC also went on to become the only watch manufacture in the northeastern German speaking part of Switzerland.

The early years of the Jones led IWC had many challenges. Even though the company was producing high-quality movements, Jones faced financial hurdles that he just couldn't overcome leading to him losing control of the company in 1880. The Rauschenbach family, who were a successful industrialist family from Schaffhausen, ended up taking IWC over from Jones and that is when the brand really started to find its footing.

In 1885 IWC released the first pocket watch to feature a digital "Pallweber" system that displayed the numerals for the hours and minutes on rotating discs. Towards the end of the 19th century IWC also saw the writing on the wall for pocket watches and put their Caliber 64 pocket watch movement inside of a wristwatch case in 1899. During the great depression of the 1920s and 30s, IWC created one of their most well known collections when a Portuguese businessman asked the company to produce a large highly accurate watch for him, which was the birth of the Portuguese / Portugieser series of watches.



Today IWC is probably best known for producing pilot's watches and these watches can be traced back to 1936 when IWC created their first pilot's watch, the "Special Watch for Pilots". These watches were designed for civil aviation and would lay the groundwork for future military watches. This watch featured a high contrast dial for easy of visibility along with a rotating bezel that would allow pilots to register and track short intervals. The "Special Watch for Pilots" also featured anti-magnetic protection from the magnetic field put off by the instruments in the cockpit.

Of all the pilot's watches produced by IWC, the most well known is the Big Pilot's Watch 52 T.S.C. (B-Uhr / Beobachtungsuhr) produced for the German Luftwaffe in 1940. The B-Uhr measured a full 55 mm in case diameter and was meant to be worn over a flight jacket. The size allowed for unparalleled legibility and was able to fit a highly accurate pocket watch movement inside its case. Since these watches were not general issue pieces but rather precision navigation instruments only 1,000 were produced leading to their scarcity in today's collectors market. IWC would pay tribute to the B-Uhr with the Big Pilot's Watch which was released decades later.

1945 brought along the release of the W.W.W. Mark X which saw IWC join the "Dirty Dozen" collection of twelve manufactures that produced all purpose watches for the British military. These were general issue watches that were given to both ground troops and aircrews. The W.W.W. stood for "Watch. Wrist. Waterproof.", meaning these watches were extremely rugged and served many roles, really an early "Go Anywhere Do Anything" (GADA) watch.



The 1950s saw IWC developer their very efficient and durable automatic winding system known as the Pellaton system. IWC uses variants of the Pellaton winding system in their automatic watches today. 1955 also saw the introduction of the Ingenieur, which was a watch designed for scientists that had a soft-iron inner case to offer superior anti-magnetic protection.

In 1967 IWC launched their first true water resistant dive watch in the Aquatimer. Although the Aquatimer was released thirteen years after the first dive watches, the collection found its footing and is still a popular collection today. 1976 also saw famed watch designer Gerald Genta create his take on the Ingenieur with the Ingenieur SL. Although the Ingenieur SL was a commercial failure upon its release, today it is looked back upon as groundbreaking.

The period of the late 1970s and 1980s were dominated by IWC's partnership with Porsche Design and their innovative use of materials. In 1978 Professor Ferdinand A. Porsche, designer of the 911, sought out a watchmaking partner to produce watches for Porsche Design. Porsche ended up settling on IWC since he was aware of their technical prowess. The first watch to emerge from this collaboration was the Compass Watch that used a hinged case made out of aluminum that contained both a watch and compass. IWC was able to produce a watch where the compass and movement did not interfere with each other, a first.



1980 saw the release of the Titan Chronograph which was the first ever chronograph featuring a fully titanium case and bracelet. At the time titanium was primarily being used in the aerospace industry and was notoriously hard to machine. IWC was able to overcome the difficulties of working with titanium and created a watch that was lightweight, strong, corrosion-resistant and hypoallergenic.

The follow up to the Titan Chronograph came in 1982 with the release of the Ocean 2000. The Ocean 2000 saw IWC truly master titanium and release a dive watch that had a staggering 2,000 meters of water resistance while still being slim and wearable. This level of water resistance was unthinkable at the time for a mechanical watch. Both civilian and military (Bund) versions of the Ocean 2000 were released over a decade and a half time span. The watch was so groundbreaking and ahead of its time, that I fell in love with it and recently purchased one for myself.

The Da Vinci collection also saw some amazing releases in the 1980s. In 1985 Kurt Klaus, a brilliant watchmaker working for IWC, developed a near foolproof perpetual calendar mechanism that was able to be set solely by the crown of the watch. This mechanism is still being used today, such as in my Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun. Along with pioneering the use of titanium in wrist watches, the 1980s also saw IWC become the first watch brand to produce a watch out of black ceramic inside of the Da Vinci collection. Today IWC is very well known for their continued use of titanium and ceramic (including colored ceramic).



Under the direction of brilliant CEO Gunter Blumlein, IWC saw its modern genesis in the early 1990s. Following the quartz crisis IWC was really helped out by their partnership with Porsche Design. The writing on the wall for the end of that partnership had become very clear when IWC would not agree to fully sell their brand to Porsche. This led to the brand looking for something new to carry IWC into the next century. Together with designer Marcus Eilinger, Blumlein introduced a host of new collections to IWC. These included the GST (Gold Steel Titanium), Pilot's Watches and Portuguese collections. Along with the new watches came an amazing advertising campaign which leveraged IWCs masculine undertones. The brand indentify that was established in these years defines what IWC is today.

Leading up to the new millennium IWC also started to focus on high horology releasing watches featuring tourbillons, minute repeaters and split seconds chronographs. Their efforts in high watchmaking were probably best represented by their grand complication II Destriero Scafusia in 1993. The year 2000 saw IWC acquired by the Richemont group and 2002 saw the release of the re-imagined and now classic Big Pilot's Watch. In the decades since, IWC has continued to innovate and refine their core collections. 2023 also saw the release of an extremely faithful re-imagining of the Ingenieur collection, which was very well received.



Initial Thoughts

Now that I've gone over a pretty thorough history of IWC, let's now talk more about the Pilot's Flyback Chronograph Top Gun. Since I'm very familiar with this watch having owned it multiple times, I'll try my best to remember the three things that I noticed first about it.



Naturally the most obvious design feature of the Top Gun is its matte black ceramic case. The look of the Top Gun is really unlike anything else I had owned at the time. Many times when you see ceramic used in watches it is glossy and used on the bezel. Having the case of the watch fully crafted out of matte ceramic is truly unique, especially for when it was released. The ceramic case not only lowers the weight of the watch, but it also makes the watch nearly impossible to scratch. I was not the first owner of either of the Top Guns I've owned, but both looked factory fresh when I acquired them. Ceramic does have the possibility of cracking and shattering, but I've heard from somebody at IWC that they had only heard of one ceramic case breaking, and that was after it was dropped off of a three story building.

The next thing I noticed about the Top Gun was its flyback chronograph movement. IWC is well known for its pilot chronograph watches, but this Top Gun is unique since it actually features a flyback function as opposed to a traditional chronograph. Flyback chronographs found their purpose in World War II when pilots needed a quicker way to restart a chronograph then having to stop, reset and then restart the function. The flyback chronograph offered a solution where the chronograph never needed to be stopped to be restarted. When I first received the Top Gun I didn't even know it was a flyback until I started playing around with the watch. I was pleasantly surprised to put it mildly.



The last thing I noticed about the Top Gun during my initial time with the watch was the Top Gun branding on the case back. Top Gun is actually a nickname used for the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School which was established in San Diego, California on March 3, 1969 at the Naval Air Station Miramar. The pilots that trained and instructed at this school were amongst the finest in the world and lead to the Top Gun nickname. The watch uses the Top Gun logo from the famous movie of the same name highlighting a fictional pilot who went through the program. The logo is in color and at first was not my favorite thing in the world. Over the years of owning two Flyback Chronograph Top Guns as well as a Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun, I've actually become used to the branding and even like it now. There is no Top Gun branding dial side besides the chronograph seconds hand counter balance being in the shape of an F/A-18 fighter jet, so it's a pretty low key.



Technical Specifications

Now that we've covered both the history of IWC as well as my initial thoughts of the Top Gun, lets now move on to the technical specifications of the watch. The Top Gun is crafted out of matte black ceramic and has a case diameter of 46.1 mm with a lug to lug length of 57.4 mm. The watch has a weight of 139 grams when on an OEM IWC rubber strap with titanium deployant clasp. At its thickest point the Top Gun is 16.6 mm tall, which isn't too surprising for a large flyback chronograph watch with a slightly domed crystal.

The Top Gun uses a sapphire crystal that has anti-reflective coating on both sides. The anti-reflective coating that IWC uses sometimes gives the crystal a somewhat bluish tint to it. Underneath the crystal clear sapphire is the matte black dial that has a slight texturing to it. Around the outside of the dial is a minute track consisting of small hash marks with each 5 minute interval getting an Arabic numeral.



IWC uses large Arabic numerals for all hour markers except 3, 6, 9 and 12 which receive large block markers with 12 having the traditional flieger triangle. IWC branding is found at 9 o'clock and there is a large black backed date cutout found at 3. The Top Gun actually displays three dates with the current date being pointed to by a white arrow. The reason that three dates are displayed is that no matter where the minute hand is, you can also tell the date, even if you have to use the top or bottom date for context to get the current date.

Staying true to history, IWC uses traditional flieger style hour and minute hands on the Top Gun. The chronograph seconds hand is slender and has a white tip. The counter balance of the centrally mounted chronograph seconds hand is red and in the shape of an F/A-18 fighter jet. The hour and minute hands along with the hour markers at 3, 6, 9 and 12 are coated in Super-Luminova which glows a brilliant green in low light.

The Top Gun is a bicompax style design meaning it only has two sub-dials. At 12 o'clock you have the chronograph minute totalizer and at 6 o'clock is the running seconds hand. Both sub-dials feature a concentric circle pattern that distinguish them from the main dial. The sub-dials both are marked with a scale of 60 with 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 getting Arabic numerals and the rest of the markers being hash marks. The chronograph minute hand is white while the running seconds hand is red.



Looking at the profile of the Top Gun you can see that the watch has rather long lugs that slope down to follow the shape of your wrist. On the right hand side are the two chronograph pushers and the screw down crown, all made out of titanium. The crown is nicely scalloped and on top is the IWC logo. The screw down crown aids in the 60 meters of water resistance. Unscrewing the crown allows you to wind the automatic movement in the resting position. Pulling the crown out to position one lets you set the date and position two stops the running seconds hand and lets you set the time. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minutes hand and getting the screw down crown to catch requires no extra effort.

Pushing the upper chronograph pusher starts the chronograph as well as stops it. Like a traditional chronograph when the chronograph has been stopped, the bottom pusher will reset the chronograph. Making the Top Gun just a bit more special is the ability to reset the chronograph without stopping it, known as a flyback function. While the chronograph is running pushing the lower chronograph pusher will snap the chronograph back to its starting position and it'll instantly start running again. This is useful when instantaneous events need to be timed and the delay to stop and reset the chronograph is too long.



The Top Gun has a lug width of 22 mm and originally came on a textured black leather strap. When I received this Top Gun, the original strap was in really worn condition so I replaced it with an IWC OEM black rubber strap with a similar texture. The strap tapers down from 22 at the lugs down to 18 mm at the titanium deployant clasp complete with IWC branding.

Flipping the watch over shows off the screw down solid titanium case back complete with the Top Gun logo. Along with the logo are engravings for IWC, Pilot's Watch Top Gun and the serial number of the watch. Underneath the case back beats the IWC in-house caliber 89365. The movement is Swiss Made and offers automatic winding. The 89365 beats away at 28,800 vph (4Hz) and has a power reserve of 68 hours. On our timegrapher the Top Gun recorded an accuracy of +3 seconds per day when averaged out over several positions, which is inside of chronometer specifications.



On The Wrist

There is no secret that the Pilot's Watch Flyback Chronograph Top Gun is a large watch, but honestly that is what I prefer. Pilot's watches traditionally were large to increase the dial size and maximize legibility. On my 7.25 inch wrist with a 55 mm flat area the Top Gun covers my wrist nicely. There is no real overhang seen either.



Being crafted out of ceramic and titanium also lowers the weight of the watch to an acceptable 139 grams for its larger size. This means that during extended periods of wear the watch never becomes an annoyance or causes any wrist fatigue. The rubber strap is exceptional and keeps the watch nice and centered and never makes the Top Gun feel top heavy. The look of the rubber strap closely resembles the original leather strap, but adds a bit more everyday use to the watch by allowing it to be submerged in water if needed, which is something you wouldn’t want to do with the leather strap.

At over 16 mm thick the Top Gun is a fairly tall watch, but with a lug to lug length of over 57 mm it actually looks proportionate on the wrist. My Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Top Gun is actually 2 mm larger, so the size has never been an issue to me with this watch.

To test legibility of a watch I see how easy it is to tell the time while driving with just a glance. The best watches in this test are large dive watches with large Arabic numerals. With the Top Gun having such a large dial that has a matte black background and large bright white hands and numerals, the watch easily passed my legibility test. Given the size and dial layout, this was no real surprise. Also with the large lumed hands and hour markers at 3, 6, 9 and 12, telling the time in low light was extremely easy as well. None of the chronograph hands are lumed and only 4 of the twelve hour markers are lumed, so the Top Gun isn't exactly a lume monster.



My typical dress is that of a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers. Given the all black and white aesthetics of the Top Gun, the watch blends in perfect with my style, or lack thereof. I remember reading an article once where the author called the Top Gun series of watches the perfect streetwear watch, which I can see.

I've owned this watch on and off for years and it is a great everyday watch that has accompanied me on countless errands and nights out. When I wear the Top Gun out it does get a ton of looks, how could it not? It's a large all black watch with large white markings on the dial. It manages to still look like a quality and luxurious watch while being done all in black, which is something that is harder to do than it sounds. I've had countless people ask me about this watch over the years and everyone has been a fan of it.



Value and Position in the Market

It's hard to talk about the value of the IWC Pilot's Watch Flyback Chronograph Top Gun since the watch released in 2012 with a retail price of $11,900. Factoring in for inflation that would be just over $16,000 today. That's not all to the story since I purchased this watch pre-owned years after its release. A good example of the Top Gun can be had today for between $6,000 and $7,000, so that needs to be factored in when talking about the value of the watch. Now would be a good time to see how good of a value the Top Gun is compared to other watches with similar features and specifications.



First up is the closest watch to the Flyback Chronograph Top Gun in IWC's current catalog, the Pilot's Watch Chronograph Top Gun. This watch has a 44.5 mm case diameter and is also crafted out of matte black ceramic with titanium components. The in-house movement has less power reserve at 46 hours and has the same water resistance of 60 meters. The watch uses a standard non-flyback chronograph and adds a day of the week complication. The new Top Gun sits between the original retail price of the flyback and the current pre-owned price at $9,400.

Next up is the Type XX Chronographe 2067 from Breguet which has a 42 mm stainless steel case. The Type XX is also based on a classic military flyback chronograph it helped pioneer. The watch has a matte black dial with large Arabic numerals as well. The Type XX uses an in-house movement with nearly the same power reserve of 60 hours. The Type XX does have a bit more water resistance at 100 meters and also features a flyback chronograph. The Type XX is much more expensive than even the inflation adjusted retail of the Top Gun at $21,000.

Moving on we have the Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Chronographe Flyback from Blancpain which has a 43.6 mm black ceramic case. The Bathyscaphe is the less professional dive watch version of the Fifty Fathoms and has looks resembling that of a pilot's watch. The watch runs on an in-house movement with 50 hours of power reserve and has a water resistance of a full 300 meters. The Bathyscaphe also has a flyback chronograph function like the other watches we've compared so far. Once again the Bathyscaphe is much more expensive than the Top Gun at $20,200.



Finally we have the Pilot Big Date Flyback from Zenith which has a 42.5 mm black ceramic case. Zenith actually is the only brand of watch to be allowed to say "Pilot" on the dial as well. The Pilot features a matte black dial and has large Arabic numerals. The Pilot has a flyback chronograph and also adds the big data complication into the mix. The Pilot runs on an in-house high-frequency movement with 60 hours of power reserve. The Pilot also has 100 meters of water resistance and is more expensive than the Top Gun's original retail at $13,900.

Looking at these four watches you can tell that the IWC Pilot's Watch Flyback Chronograph Top Gun is an amazing value pre-owned and right where it should be price wise when looking at its original retail price. Even though the watch debuted over a decade ago it still uses a cutting edge case material in ceramic and boasts the extremely useful and hard to produce flyback chronograph complication.



Closing Thoughts

So in the end is the IWC Pilot's Watch Flyback Chronograph Top Gun for me? Well of course it is since I've owned it twice. The blacked out look of the matte black ceramic case and textured black dial really gives the watch a unique look. The bright white hands and hour markers also make the dial stand out and give you near perfect legibility. The Top Gun also brings together two hallmarks of the brand, pilots watches and the use of innovative materials, especially ceramic. The Top Gun also including a Flyback Chronograph makes the watch that much more interesting than a standard chronograph.



Really the way the Top Gun wears is my favorite thing about the watch. It's long lug to lug measurement means it covers my wrist nicely while not being too long and overhanging my wrist. The use of ceramic and titanium also keep the weight of the larger case down to a manageable level. With nearly all areas of the watch that could come in contact with foreign objects being made out of scratchproof ceramic or sapphire means the watch still looks nearly as good as the day it left the factory over a decade ago.

So would I recommend the Top Gun to somebody looking for a larger pilots watch or sporty chronograph? Of course I would. If it's good enough to have been in my personal collection twice, then I'd have no problems recommending the watch to others. I would say that you probably need at minimum a 6.75 to 7 inch wrist to pull it off though. When you factor in what the Top Gun goes for on the pre-owned market, you'd really be hard pressed to find another watch that gives you as much for such a low price, especially if you look current release watches. Like I've mentioned multiple times, having a ceramic case means that you could have a decades old watch that still looks new. IWC still produces Top Gun models out of matte black ceramic, so the watch is still in style today as well.

Now we've come to the sad part of this review. Unfortunately the Pilot's Watch Flyback Chronograph Top Gun is leaving my collection again. Why would I part ways with a watch that I've purchased two times now? Basically I also own the IWC Big Pilot's Watch Perpetual Calendar Top Gun which looks very similar to this watch and a perpetual calendar Big Pilot has always been a grail watch of mine, so each time I open the safe and reach for a pilot's watch I pick the perpetual calendar. It's really a shame that this great watch basically gets zero wrist time and it would just make more sense to sell it. Depending on when you read this review, I could still have the watch available for sale. If you're interested just reach out.



So is there a chance that I will add the IWC Pilot's Watch Flyback Chronograph Top Gun back to my collection for a third time? I highly doubt it, and if I do I feel my wife will take all of my credit card privileges away for the foreseeable future…

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: IW388001

Retail Price: $11,900

Case Size: 46.1 mm

Lug to Lug: 57.4 mm

Thickness: 16.6 mm

Weight: 139 grams

Case Material: Ceramic

Bezel: Ceramic

Strap: Black Rubber Strap with Titanium Deployant Clasp (Originally on a Leather Strap)

Movement: In-House Swiss Made Automatic Caliber 89365

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Date and Flyback Chronograph

Power Reserve: 68 Hours

Water Resistance: 60 Meters