British engineer-designers Zero West have smelted down the Merlin engine metal from a Battle of Britain Spitfire, to create an engraved disc insert for their new S4-P9427 Pilot watch.
Zero West Watches has looked to capture ‘time and place’ with extensive research, tracing this iconic plane’s final sortie back to a classic dogfight, defending Britain’s skies on the 28th November 1940.
Zero West says the S4 watch aims to convey the simplicity of the classic avionic airspeed indicator dial found in the Spitfire cockpit.
Housed in a precision billet machined vapour blasted case and contrasting black ZW DSL lugs, is a distinct black dial with period numerals and indexes, clearly defined avionics style hands, and a standout red sweep seconds hand.
The classic dial is framed by a simple matt black bezel ring and the hands and dial are highlighted with SuperLuminova X1 luminous pigment.
The dial also references the date of Sergeant Pilot Zygmunt Klein’s dogfight above The Needles (28th November 1940), and the longitude-latitude coordinates of Poole Bay where Spitfire P9427 was discovered.
The rear of the watch showcases a disc of the original metal that we recast and machined from the original Rolls-Royce Merlin engine of P9427.
The watch is powered by the stellar Swiss ETA 2824 automatic movement while hand and date adjustment is by a brass finished locking screw crown modelled on the joystick gun platform fire button, a feature once so familiar to those brave young RAF pilots during the Battle of Britain.
The watch is fitted with a ZW handmade vintage leather strap with contrasting stitching and an engraved black PVD buckle.
The S4-P9427 retails for £2,500 and only 80 of these iconic watches will be made.
