Automatic 41 Black Aces

The Pilot’s Watch Automatic 41 Black Aces is the latest innovation to emerge from the IWC Professional Pilot’s Watches Program. This masterstroke of functional engineering features a fully luminous white dial consisting of a solid disc of Super-LumiNova®. In dark chamber tests, the dial has emitted a bright greenish light for more than 23 hours, taking night visibility to the next level.

Easy legibility – even in challenging conditions or in the dark – is the single most important requirement for a pilot’s watch. This functional need has resulted in the typical cockpit instrument design, a distinguishing feature of IWC’s Pilot’s Watches. The Pilot’s Watch Automatic 41 Black Aces is the first timepiece from Schaffhausen with a fully luminous white Lumicast dial. Developed in collaboration with “Black Aces” pilots, the dial consists of a solid disc of Super-LumiNova®. In dark chamber tests, it has emitted a bright greenish light for more than 23 hours, taking night visibility to the next level. 

During the complex manufacturing process, high-grade Super-LumiNova® pigments are mixed with a binder, cast into a circular mold and hardened in a specially developed curing process to give the material a ceramic-like durability. The resulting solid disc is then fixed onto the soft-iron dial blank. Finally, the dial is imprinted with black indices and numerals and the “Black Aces” patch, resembling the ace of spades from a card deck.