Many firsts in 3 new luxury timepieces from IWC, Richard Mille and Lange

RIGHT ON TRACK

If you were wondering about the colourful watches on the wrists of South African sprinter Wayde van Niekerk and Qatari high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim at the recent IAAF World Championships in London, know that they were the lightest automatic watches Richard Mille has ever made. The RM 67-02 weighs just 32g, thanks to a Quartz TPT case and Carbon TPT casebands. Even the rotor is made of Carbon TPT, while the mainplate and bridges are crafted in titanium. It’s an update of the ultra-light and shock-resistant RM 67-01 Extra Flat, with colours selected to represent South Africa and Qatar, respectively.

FLYING HOME

IWC is giving 1,948 pieces of its entry-level Pilot’s Watch the military makeover. The Pilot’s Watch Mark XVIII was launched last year with a clean design in a crowd-pleasing 40mm case, but new for this limited-edition “Tribute to XI” are thinner indexes, added lume and the removal of the two dots previously fl anking the triangular index at 12 o’clock. The original Pilot’s Watch Mark 11 from 1948 was supplied to the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth armed forces until the early 1980s, so it’s fi tting that this 2017 tribute comes with a green Nato strap. Like the regular Mark XVIII watches, the movement is protected from magnetic forces, thanks to a soft-iron case.

BLACK BEAUTY

Chronograph geeks will appreciate this: The Lange 1815 Chronograph now comes in a black dial with a white gold case — a fi rst for a pulsometer-dial model. This is only the second time an 1815 Chronograph has featured a pulsometer since the collection’s overhaul in 2010, the fi rst being in a boutique exclusive from 2015. It’s similar in appearance to the brand’s fl agship chrono, the Datograph, but the lack of outsized date makes it 1.5mm slimmer, coming in at 11mm thick. The calibre here is the L951.5, which provides a 60-hour power reserve.