Cover (From left) IWC Schaffhausen Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet Le Petit Prince Ref IW329601 in stainless steel, Pilot’s Watch Mark XX Le Petit Prince Ref IW328301 in 18K 5N gold, Pilot’s Watch Mark XX Le Petit Prince Ref IW328221 in stainless steel and Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Le Petit Prince Ref IW389410 in stainless steel
(From left) IWC Schaffhausen Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet Le Petit Prince Ref IW329601 in stainless steel, Pilot’s Watch Mark XX Le Petit Prince Ref IW328301 in 18K 5N gold, Pilot’s Watch Mark XX Le Petit Prince Ref IW328221 in stainless steel and Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Le Petit Prince Ref IW389410 in stainless steel
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Marking 20 years of working with the Saint‑Exupéry family, IWC Schaffhausen brings its Le Petit Prince collection to new heights—and introduces a perpetual calendar that changes the rules
Antoine de Saint‑Exupéry never separated his two vocations. By profession, the Frenchman was a pioneering airmail pilot who crossed the Sahara and the South Atlantic. By calling, he was a writer and philosopher whose work translated the experience of flight into a deeper reflection on what it means to be human. The cockpit, for Saint‑Exupéry, was not a place of escape but of clarity. Stripped of distraction, suspended between earth and sky, the essential things became visible.
It is a sensibility that Swiss manufacture IWC Schaffhausen has carried through its creative alliance with the descendants of Saint‑Exupéry since 2006—a partnership that has produced some of the most enduring special editions in contemporary watchmaking. These include the dedicated models that are poetic transliterations of Saint‑Exupéry’s most famous work, Le Petit Prince. First published in 1943 and since translated into more than 600 languages and dialects, the story follows a young prince’s travels to distant planets, and it is in the infinite space between the stars that he learns his most valuable lessons about love, loss and friendship. Evoking the same sense of depth and boundlessness—something vast glimpsed through the glass of a cockpit window, an invitation to never lose one’s sense of curiosity—is a sunray‑finished dial in deep blue that has become a definitive signature of the Le Petit Prince timepieces.
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Above (From left) IWC Schaffhausen Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet Le Petit Prince Ref IW329601 in stainless steel, Pilot’s Watch Mark XX Le Petit Prince Ref IW328301 in 18K 5N gold, Pilot’s Watch Mark XX Le Petit Prince Ref IW328221 in stainless steel and Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Le Petit Prince Ref IW389410 in stainless steel
(From left) IWC Schaffhausen Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet Le Petit Prince Ref IW329601 in stainless steel, Pilot’s Watch Mark XX Le Petit Prince Ref IW328301 in 18K 5N gold, Pilot’s Watch Mark XX Le Petit Prince Ref IW328221 in stainless steel and Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Le Petit Prince Ref IW389410 in stainless steel
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This year, as IWC Schaffhausen marks the double milestone of the 20th anniversary of the Saint‑Exupéry partnership and the 90th year of its Pilot’s Watches collection, it takes this literary universe into new territory with an expansive release of models. Marking the debut of a white ceramic chronograph within the Le Petit Prince series is the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Le Petit Prince, which is joined by a new stainless steel variant in the same size and a redesigned 43mm version sporting a thinner profile. All three come with the signature blue dial and glowing plated hands, as well as an upgraded water resistance of 100m and an illustration of the titular prince on the caseback.
Then there is the Pilot’s Watch Mark XX Le Petit Prince in stainless steel and—for the first time in the Mark series’s history—luxurious 18k 5N gold. Accompanying them is the ultra‑compact Pilot’s Watch Automatic 36 Le Petit Prince with a blue calfskin strap, ensuring that the anniversary‑edition series scales elegantly across a wider variety of wrist sizes and personal tastes.
Simultaneously, the prince ventures beyond the Pilot’s Watches family for the first time, making an appearance in IWC Schaffhausen’s most elegant dress watch line with the Portofino Automatic Day and Night 34 Le Petit Prince. Here, an exquisite detail rewards the attentive wearer: a tiny depiction of the prince himself, standing on the moon of the day‑and‑night display, gazing up at the starlit sky.
Above Portofino Automatic Day & Night 34 Le Petit Prince in stainless steel
Portofino Automatic Day & Night 34 Le Petit Prince in stainless steel
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Running alongside these releases is a mechanical breakthrough: the Perpetual Calendar ProSet. Building on the brand’s decades of perpetual calendar mastery, this mechanism—pending multiple patent applications—introduces true bidirectionality. For the first time, a completely synchronised, gear-based design allows the entire calendar to be adjusted both forward and backward smoothly using a single crown position—no corrector buttons or complicated setting sequences needed. As IWC Schaffhausen CEO Christoph Grainger‑Herr puts it: “Its fully synchronised design is entirely based on gears and makes adjusting the calendar forward and backward as easy and intuitive as setting the time.”
The mechanism also brings a significantly enhanced moon‑phase display that deviates from the Moon’s actual orbit by just one day every 1,040 years and shows the phase as seen from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Meanwhile, the four‑digit year display—a hallmark of the brand’s perpetual calendars since Kurt Klaus—remains in its familiar position between 7 o’clock and 8 o’clock.
Above Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet Le Petit Prince in white zirconium oxide ceramic
Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet Le Petit Prince in white zirconium oxide ceramic
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Naturally, this horological milestone finds a home within the flagship Pilot’s Watches collection, debuting in three versions of the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet, powered by the brand‑manufactured calibre 82665 with a 60‑hour power reserve. Two of these—in white ceramic and stainless steel—are Le Petit Prince editions, carrying the deep blue dial and, on the rotor of the winding system, a gold‑plated medallion depicting the prince standing on his home asteroid. The third, in 18k 5N gold with a dark olive green dial, stands apart as a quietly striking alternative for those who prefer their complications without the literary reference.
What the 2026 Le Petit Prince releases ultimately demonstrate is the particular coherence of IWC Schaffhausen’s partnership with the Saint‑Exupéry legacy. The line‑up beautifully embodies one of the most celebrated lines from Le Petit Prince: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Ultimately, this philosophy speaks to what fine watchmaking, at its best, aspires to: the unseen complexity that produces an apparently effortless result.
Credits
Images: IWC Schaffhausen
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Annabel Tan is the Editor of Watches and Jewellery at Tatler Singapore, where she covers all things luxury timepieces and fine jewellery across both print and digital platforms. She is also the Editor of Tatler GMT Singapore, a role that deepens her fascination with the ever-evolving world of watchmaking. Outside of work, she’s usually on the hunt for her next favourite watch that she can’t afford, planning her next beach getaway, or catching up on the latest Formula 1 race.
