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The IWC Top Gun watch now comes in 2 more colors (and they’re stunning)

This watch is the perfect wingman

By Mark D McKee Published October 30, 2023

IWC Top Gun black — IWC

Two decades after Tom Cruise suited up and brought renown and recognition to the U.S. Navy’s elite fighter pilot school in Top Gun, IWC watches became the first brand allowed to use the name of the exclusive school. The IWC Colors of Top Gun premiered in 2007. That may have been the beginning of the Top Gun watches, but the Swiss watch brand is not only known for its luxury watches; it’s also known for its pilot watch specifically.

IWC spent decades perfecting the iconic timepieces of the skies, and the Top Gun collection continued and improved upon the tradition with some of the best men’s watches designed for the “Need for Speed.” Each one is a descendant of the double chronograph with the day/date features. They initially came in Oceana (blue), Jet Black, and Lake Tahoe (white). They are all ceramic-cased and monochromatic watches, giving you the sleekest look for your time in the cockpit (or watching Tom Cruise in the cockpit). These are some of the best watches for men, and now IWC is adding to the roster with two more colors to give you even more options to look great.

IWC Top Gun Woodland — IWC

IWC Top Gun Woodland

Top Gun is the top school in the world, meant for elite naval aviators. The Woodland is inspired by the green flight suits worn by these pilots. It’s also paying homage to the wooded areas these aviators fly over. “Maverick” may have limited his dogfighting over the water in Top Gun, but the truth is these guys do the most dangerous job in the world over every terrain, including the woodland areas of the planet.

IWC Top Gun Mojave Desert — IWC

IWC Top Gun Mojave Desert

The oceans and the seas are not the only areas around the world that need protection from the sky. Those who graduate from Top Gun sometimes find themselves looking out for the skies over the desert. The Mojave Desert is designed to pay homage to those who look to protect us over the scorching hot barren wastelands like that of China Lake, home to the Top Gun school.

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Whether you’re strapping up to man the cockpit of a fighter jet and learn the lost art of dogfighting like “Maverick,” “Goose,” “Iceman,” “Viper,” and “Jester,” or you are strapping on the watch to get the looks of envy from those at the family barbecue, the new “Colors of Top Gun” additions are the picks that will keep you the center of attention.

Editor

Mark cut his teeth in the men's style world when he sold suits first at box stores such as Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank…

Topics

Watches

Fashion & Style

Swatch’s new gold MoonSwatch is priced like it’s 1969

The Mission to the Moon 1969 packs 11 grams of real 18K gold — priced at the 1969 gold rate.

Wristwatch, Arm, Body Part

Guess what? It's another MoonSwatch — but this isn't just another colorway. The new drop from the Switzerland-based watchmaker, the MoonSwatch Mission to the Moon 1969, is the first to use real gold across the dial, hands, crown, and pushers.

The watch marks the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on July 21, 1969.

Fashion & Style

Breitling’s new Top Time is a wearable tribute to the Aston Martin DB5

The new watches rep the iconic Bond car right down to subdials shaped like its dashboard gauges.

Car, Watch, Man

Breitling just released a trio of heaters: the Top Time B01 Chronograph 41 Tribute to Aston Martin DB5, a three-edition collaboration with the British carmaker. The connection between the Swiss watchmaker and the British car company runs back to 1965, when a Top Time ref. 2002 appeared on Sean Connery's wrist in Thunderball, worn alongside the DB5 — the first Q-modified watch in the Bond series. It's a nice bit of trivia that the DB5 and that Top Time shared the screen in the same film, and both went on to outlive the movie by decades.

The car cues go deeper than the "squircle" gauge-shaped subdials: a wooden inner ring nods to the DB5's steering wheel, and each edition rides on a hand-colored gradient calfskin strap meant to read like automotive upholstery. All three run on Breitling's in-house Manufacture Caliber 01, a COSC-certified automatic chronograph with a 70-hour power reserve, visible through a sapphire caseback and finished with an Aston Martin-engraved rotor. The case measures 41mm. The editions are divvied up by material and rarity. Stainless steel with a silver dial is limited to 1,022 pieces and sticks closest to the original ref. 2002, while steel with a platinum bezel and black lacquered dial drops to 315 pieces.

Fashion & Style

Look to the sky for these space themed watches

These 5 space themed watches will have you seeing stars

Accessories, Strap, Wristwatch

It was the 1960s. We were in the middle of a Cold War with Russia, and instead of escalating to an actual war with bullets and bombs, we took the conflict to the sky. We created a war of economics, science, and morale in a race to the sky to be the first nation to reach the moon. While the race picked up throughout the decade, it came down to the wire before the USA won the race by landing on the moon (if you believe that sort of thing and don't believe Stanley Kubrick directed the greatest ruse of all time). In any case, no race can be run without a good timekeeper. And watches were a must-have for all involved. Ever since, chronophiles like me have been obsessed with space-themed watches and, in particular, moon mission watches.

That is why I happened to have this list in my head. Five watches that bring the space race and the great beyond to the forefront of thinking to build a collection that is out of this world.