IWC Marks the Dunhill Links Championship with an Olive Pilot’s Chronograph

IWC has a new version of the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 43, reference IW378008, with an olive dial and gold-plated hands. It marks IWC’s sixth year as official timing partner of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews. The colour combination works well, and it’s a nice change for this chronograph.

The case remains unchanged. It’s 43mm wide and 14.8mm thick, in steel with a mix of brushed and polished surfaces. That thickness is quite something. It’s a lot of height for a three-register chronograph, but it's nothing unique to this particular watch. Just worth mentioning. Sapphire crystals cover the dial and the caseback, the crown screws down, and water resistance is 100 meters.

The olive is warmer than the greens IWC has used before on the 41mm chronograph, the Racing Green Edition and the Big Pilot 43. It has a sunray finish and contrasts with the gold well. Markers, numerals and tracks are printed in white with Super-LumiNova, and the gold hands are lumed too. The layout is the usual IWC chronograph: three subdials plus a day-date.

Inside is IWC calibre 69385, an automatic column-wheel chronograph built at Richemont’s ValFleurier facility and based on the Valjoux 7750. It beats at 4Hz with 46 hours of power reserve, which is fine. You can see it through the caseback, finished with perlage, circular graining and an openworked rotor. The watch comes on a five-link steel bracelet with a folding clasp, and the box also has an olive rubber strap with a pin buckle.

The IW378008 joins the permanent collection, priced at €9,700. See more on the IWC website.