New Release: IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Miramar
For 2025, IWC is expanding its Colors of Top Gun series with a new shade of blue known as “Miramar” that is making its debut appearance on a duo of Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 models. Along with offing the new hue as one of the dial options for the standard stainless steel Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41, the Schaffhausen-based manufacturer has also announced the IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Miramar, which is a 1,000-piece limited edition that introduces the new shade of blue to the brand’s growing list of ceramic colors.
The new “Miramar” color that appears on this latest duo of IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 models gets its name from the Naval Air Station Miramar, which was the original birthplace of the Navy Fighter Weapons School (aka Top Gun). The specific hue of Miramar is inspired by the light blue shirts worn by Top Gun instructors under their flight suits, and just like the brand’s other Top Gun colors (Mojave Desert, Lake Tahoe, Woodland, Oceana, and Jet Black), IWC worked with Pantone to create this specific shade of pale blue. With that in mind, the new Miramar colorway stands out as noticeably softer and more lighthearted, and it offers significantly fewer military vibes than any of IWC’s other Top Gun shades.
The first of the two new Miramar-colored models is the IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 (ref. IW388117), and it is essentially just the pale blue version of the standard stainless steel Pilot’s Watch Chronograph. Measuring 41mm in diameter by 14.5mm thick, the case of the watch is identical to its siblings, and it is furnished with a convex sapphire crystal, a display-style caseback, and a screw-down crown that helps ensure 100 meters of water resistance. The primary detail separating the stainless steel Miramar model from its counterparts is the color of its dial and rubber strap, with both components appearing in its signature hue of pale blue. Additionally, unlike most of IWC’s Pilot’s Watch Chronograph models that have a bright red accent on their running seconds hands, the new Miramar-colored version features a fully polished handset, which provides it with a slightly more elevated overall appearance.
The other new model from this latest duo of releases is the IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Miramar (ref. IW389409), and it is simply the pale blue version of the ceramic-cased Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Mojave Desert, which also exists in other Top Gun colorways like “Oceana” (dark blue) and “Lake Tahoe” (white). Despite the “41” in their name, the ceramic cases of IWC’s ceramic Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun models actually measure 41.9mm in diameter by 15.5mm thick, and they swap out the display casebacks of their stainless steel siblings in favor of solid screw-down casebacks with soft-iron inner shields for additional protection against magnetism. The Miramar-colored dial and matching rubber strap are carried over onto the ceramic-cased Top Gun version, although its hands are finished Miramar blue and its buckle is made from titanium instead of stainless steel.
According to IWC’s website, the stainless steel Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 runs on the brand’s Caliber 69385 automatic movement, while the ceramic Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Miramar is powered by the Caliber 69380. That said, the two column-wheel operated chronograph movements appear to be entirely identical (IWC uses the exact same photo for both of them on its website), and they feature a 33-jewel design that runs at a frequency of 28,800vph (4 Hz) with a power reserve of approximately 46 hours. Similar to IWC’s other current-generation Pilot’s Watch models, the rubber straps connect to the case with the brand’s EasX-CHANGE system, which uses a standard spring bar between the lugs but integrates a button-operated release into the underside of the strap to enable tool-free removal.
At this point in time, all we have are a few limited product images, but I’m personally quite curious to see IWC’s Miramar-colored ceramic in person. Not all colors translate equally well to small ceramic structures, and there are certain hues (particularly those on the lighter end of the spectrum) that are objectively quite lovely in concept, but ultimately ultimately end up feeling rather underwhelming when rendered in ceramic. Up until now, IWC has played it relatively safe with its ceramic palette, although the pale blue hue of its Miramar colorway represents a radical departure from what currently exits within brand’s Top Gun series, and it offers a noticeably less military-oriented expression of IWC’s ceramic-cased pilot’s chronograph.
The key takeaway from this latest release is that IWC has a new color of ceramic, and given the substantial effort (and cost) required to nail down a specific shade, you can virtually guarantee that we will eventually see other models made from this light blue Miramar-colored ceramic. While the stainless steel IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 with a Miramar-colored dial (ref. IW388117) is joining the catalog as a standard production model with the same $7,200 USD retail price as its siblings, the IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Miramar (ref. IW389409) will be a limited edition of 1,000 examples, and it will have an official retail price of $13,500 USD, which makes it over a thousand dollars more expensive than any of the other Top Gun colorways with cases made from a different colors of ceramic. For more information, please visit the IWC website.
