Le Petit Prince Annual Calendar WG

Front Back

Le Petit Prince Annual Calendar WG

Reference
IW502703 IW5027-03
Case Material
White Gold
Original Release
2016
Limited edition
LE 250
Movement
Annual Calendar
Numbering
'One out of 250' on caseback
Dial color
Blue Midnight (Radiant)
Size
46.0mm height / 15.5 mm diameter
Calibre
52850
Original Strap
brown calfskin no rivets
Other
See-through sapphire-glass back displaying a blue movement; such a distinctive colour from a coating with various metallic oxides.
IWC often uses what is called physical vapour deposition (PVD) to manufacture blue dials such as for this model. The PVD procedure allows extremely dense coatings to be created, which are only fractions of a micrometre thick. The dials are first galvanically nickel-plated and gold-plated. The actual PVD coating then follows, where they are steamed in a vacuum chamber with gaseous metal ions. The final colour depends on the specific process properties and the coating thickness, among other things. As an alternative to PVD coating, special paints are also used to achieve the blue colour on certain other models.