Conquering the Skies – IWC Schaffhausen and JU-AIR

For years now, IWC Schaffhausen and the Swiss airline JU-AIR have cultivated a partnership based on a mutual admiration of the Junkers JU-52 aircraft. Of just eight airworthy vintage JU-52s worldwide, one has carried the IWC logo for two decades and, in the year 2000, started out on a circumnavigation of the globe to publicize a new IWC Pilot’s Watch. Time, then, to acknowledge JU-AIR’s outstanding work. In honour of the airline established to keep the vintage aircraft aloft, the IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition “JU-Air”, strictly limited to 500 watches, is ready to take off.
“In 1994, three of JU-AIR’s JU-52 aircraft flew to Venegono in Italy for the presentation of the latest watch collection from IWC Schaffhausen,” says IWC CEO Georges Kern, recalling the start of the company’s long-standing partnership with the Swiss airline. “We’ve helped subsidize JU-AIR ever since and are proud of the fact that the IWC logo has been so prominent on one of the JU-52 planes for the past 20 years.” An infectious passion for flying, IWC’s Pilot’s Watch tradition – which is almost as old as the historic corrugated sheet metal aircraft itself – together with a flair for classic design and mechanical engineering: these are the ties that bind JU-AIR and IWC Schaffhausen. The Swiss watch manufacturer, which established a tradition for designing and producing Pilot’s Watches in 1936, has now sponsored JU-AIR for exactly 20 years, making this the ideal time to give permission for take-off to the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition “JU-Air” (Ref. IW387809) in stainless steel, which is limited to 500 watches.