Historical Perspectives: The IWC Ceramic Fliegerchronograph Reference 3705, A Look Back At A Rare Modern IWC

One of the rarest and most interesting IWC watches of the last few decades is one that a lot of newer IWC clients and fans might not even have heard of: the long out-of-production reference 3705, ceramic cased “Fliegerchronograph” or Pilot’s Chronograph. The Fliegerchronograph was first introduced by IWC in 1994 (a follow-on from an almost completely forgotten hybrid quartz-mechanical watch, the 36 mm “Pilot’s Watch Chronograph,” which debuted at the Dübendorf Airfield, near Zurich, all the way back in 1988). The ceramic cased "Fliegerchronograph Keramik" 3705 was introduced in the same year as the standard stainless steel version, reference 3706. We covered 3705 in a comparison with a modern ceramic IWC pilot's chrono almost four years ago, so we thought it might be time to take another look.

3705 was not the first ceramic cased watch made by IWC. The company had experimented with zirconium oxide ceramic as early as 1986, when IWC produced the Da Vinci Chronograph Perpetual Calendar, in a wide range of colors – some more than a little unconventional; apparently one model was offered in lime green (and if I can find a picture of one of those I’ll die a happy man). There were earlier attempts to incorporate exotic, ultra-hard, scratch resistant or virtually scratch-proof materials in watch cases in earlier years, of course. Rado introduced its tungsten carbide Diastar in 1962, and in 1973, Omega began developing its Cermet cased watches. Cermet, as the name implies, is a composite material made of an aluminum oxide ceramic, and tungsten carbide; it was introduced as the “Black Tulip” in 1982. But as far as I’ve been able to determine the earliest pure ceramic watch cases were made in 1986, by IWC.

Above is an example from about 1995, in ceramic and yellow gold; and it’s interesting to remember that these were pretty hot watches at the time. I suspect you might have uphill battle selling a watch that looks like this today (probably; it’s 38.4 mm on top of everything else) although really, who knows?

The ceramic Pilot’s Chronograph is an interesting beast. They were made in quite small numbers; they also weren’t made for very long. According to IWC's historian, Dr. David Seyffert, they were sold from 1994-98, and though IWC does not have exact production numbers, Dr. Seyffert tells us it was definitely less than 2000; he describes it as "really a rare one." A few days ago, when we shared a picture of this one on our Instagram, a gentleman who owns the stainless steel version (3706) from the same time period commented that he had no idea a ceramic version even existed. Possibly they’re as rare as they are because they were about 50% more expensive than the non-ceramic models.

I remember seeing one for the first time many years ago on the wrist of then-IWC U.S. President Benoit de Clerck, at IWC’s New York office, and wondering if it wasn’t too quirky for its own good. The old adage that absence makes the heart grow fonder must be true because when I saw this one in the office it was – well, like meeting that girl you knew in college and didn’t notice at the time a few years later at a reunion, with her adoring husband in tow, and you say to yourself good god, what was I thinking, she’s gorgeous.

The watch has aged extremely well – in fact, other than the rather charmingly yellowed tritium markers, it pretty much hasn’t aged at all. This, of course, is thanks to the use of zirconium oxide industrial ceramics. This is not a surface coating, by the way; the case is made by taking powdered ZrO2 and pressing it in a mold under high temperature and pressure. It’s all ceramic, all the way through. The resulting material is so hard it can for all intents and purposes only be machined further with diamond cutting tools. It’s also very crack resistant thanks to its crystalline microstructure (another use for it is in ceramic knives, by the way). It does not corrode; it’s light; and it’s completely hypoallergenic as well: in a word, almost the ideal watch case material.

A few folks object to this watch on the grounds that the movement is not in-house. In fact, it is an IWC modified Valjoux 7750. As many of you probably know, IWC hand-tunes and adjusts all its supplied movements to temperature, positions, and isochronism and as a rule they perform almost boringly well in terms of reliability and accuracy, which is what you want from a tool watch. (After nearly two decades of writing about watches, I really feel that being too doctrinaire about in-house vs supplied means missing a lot of interesting watchmaking and besides, in-house in and of itself means almost nothing – I’d even go so far as to say absolutely nothing – unless you take other qualifying details into account.)  

After all the Mark XII, which is maybe the most universally loved enthusiast timepiece outside the Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch, has a JLC automatic movement in it (one which, on top of everything else, a lot of people feel is a slightly questionable choice for a sports watch anyway) and nobody seems to think it’s the worse for it. (I feel obliged to also wonder at the fact that no one seems to mind the white date disk on the Mark XII, but as the lady says in Harold and Maude, consistency is not really a human trait.)

The neat thing about this somewhat forgotten treasure from the mid-1990s is that if you can find one, they’re really not all that expensive; a fair bit of digging, plus some input from readers kind enough to share their focus on these watches, would tend to suggest you can expect to pay around $7,000, perhaps a bit more. If you can find one, that is. Numbers were very small, as we’ve said (especially by IWC standards) and the people who do own them seem very disinclined to part with them. I think they’re sort of an ideal quarry right now though. They’re still affordable, they look terrific (really terrific) and they’re rare enough that if you want one, it’s going to be an interesting hunt.

IWC Ceramic “Fliegerchronograph” produced between 1994-1996. 39 mm ceramic zirconium oxide case with engraved stainless-steel case back. Movement, IWC modified Valjoux/ETA 7750, time, date (in Deutsch, naturlich).  

Visit IWC online right here, and read a detailed story about how the case is made right here.

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