A watch fit for a hero

The price you paid for an IWC MKXI navigators' watch was to lay your life on the line

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SITTING IN RETIRED Wing Commander Gordon Lear's conservatory, chatting over coffee about his IWC MkXI navigators' watch (as he recounts a completely unprintable story about the MP Peter Bottomley's visit to an RAF radar station), I'm reminded of what a privilege it is to write about watches and the people who own them. It's a rule that the more exceptional their lives or achievements, the more modest and unassuming they are.

Lear is far from the silver-spoon Wing Commander caricature. He worked his way up from a scholarship at Gravesend County Grammar School to being a Coastal Command Cat A, VIP-qualified navigator who flew Lord Mountbatten in Northern Ireland, navigated countless air-sea rescue missions, and ranged from the UK to Borneo.