IWC’s Latest Release Proves Beige Doesn’t Have To Be Boring

• This 41mm sand-coloured ceramic case inspired by China Lake and US Navy flight suits.
• Powered by IWC’s in-house 32112 calibre with 120-hour (5-day) power reserve.
• Part of IWC’s Colors of TOP GUN series, combining military heritage with modern engineering.

Beige used to be the colour of compromise: the shade of airport carpets, bulk-buy chinos, and things you forget you own. It’s the colour of a refurbed house in a gentrified area; the colour you imagine when you’re talking to your girlfriend’s mate’s boyfriends about what they do for work.

But in 2025, IWC has flipped the narrative with the release of the next Pilot’s Watch: a timepiece that proves beige doesn’t always have to be boring.

Crafted from sand-coloured ceramic, the Mojave Desert edition celebrates the Swiss luxury watchmaker’s deep and revered connection to military grade timepieces. Originally developed for Royal Air Force pilots in the 1940s, IWC’s pilot watches were built to strict combat specs, offering its wearer distinguished accurary at a fleeting glance.

That legacy continues today through the TOP GUN line, where technical precision meets field-ready functionality, seen on the wrist of Miles Teller in Top Gun 2.

With this unique colourway, the IWC Pilot’s Watch Automatic 41 TOP GUN Mojave Desert is designed to blend in with flight suits, taking its inspiration from the landscape around China Lake area in the Western Mojave Desert, with the understated confidence of someone who doesn’t need to explain their horological choices.

Under the hood, this 41mm reference houses IWC’s 32112 calibre, an automatic movement with a 120-hour power reserve. That’s five full days, or at least enough in the reserve to keep ticking from Sydney to London and back without needing a wind.

It beats at 4 Hz (28,800 vibrations per hour) and uses a bidirectional pawl-winding system to maximise efficiency during wear. This isn’t just a spec-sheet number, it’s long-haul reliability built into a watch that’s made for serious travel. Except this one’s for the guy who’d rather fly the plane than post from the airport lounge.

Tone-on-tone combo of matte case, brown dial, and beige rubber strap gives this piece a classic military aesthetic: pragmatic, functional and sleek. One that makes your average steel sports watch look like flashy bling in comparison. But don’t mistake subtlety for simplicity.

Unlike paint or coatings, ceramic colour is baked into the material itself, which is entirely what makes IWC’s Mojave Desert cases so impressive. IWC spent years perfecting this ceramic blend; a mix of zirconium oxide and metallic oxides that required dozens of trials just to get the sintering process right.

No doubt about it, this isn’t IWC’s best release of 2025. That honour goes to the solid gold Ingenieur. This, by comparison, feels more like a Swatch watch than the statement-making Mojave Chronograph or the rugged Perpetual Calendar that Lewis Hamilton loved to much. RIP. Still, every watch has its audience. The price? Around $13,200. Ouch.