The world’s most controversial watch advertisement

Flight attendants (also known as stewardesses) in Hong Kong went ballistic on 27th April 2007 over an advertisement that appeared on the front page of the South China Morning Post.

The ad was for the Swiss-made IWC Schaffhausen Big Pilot’s Watch, a luxury watch designed for pilots which carries a USD12,500 price tag.

Well, with taglines like these I suppose you’re courting trouble:

Often seen on stewardesses’ bedside tables.

Engineered for men.

Not infrequently spotted in bedrooms.

Its seven-day power reserve “means you can afford to stay in bed that little bit longer than usual.”

Copies of SCMP are carried on board Cathay Pacific and Dragonair flights and given free to passengers. No wonder lah!

A flight attendant said summed it up: “…seems to make out that flight attendants are loose women who sleep with pilots just because they’ve got a nice watch.”

Interestingly, John Findlay, the general secretary of the Aircrew Officers Association, which represents Hong Kong pilots said no pilots in the association wore such a watch.

Unfortunately, I can’t seem find a copy of the advertisement anywhere. Anybody can help?

Now a little bit about the watch itself. According to its desciption at armstrongrockwell.com, it is “in a 46.2mm, stainless steel case, with a black dial and illuminating Arabic numerals. This watch features the automatic Pellaton winding system. The dial displays a date window in the six o’clock position, seven day power reserve with indicator, and second hand with stop function. The convex sapphire crystal has antireflective on both sides. Water resistant to 60 meters. The watch is on a black crocodile strap.”

This is a video of the launching of the watch in 2002: