AVI-8 marks 80 years since VE Day with capsule watches collection

Today marks 80 years since VE Day, when victory was declared over Germany in Europe and six years of fighting on the continent was brought to an end.

To mark the occasion, AVI-8 has announced a limited-edition capsule collection of watches, each subtly redesigned to incorporate the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. In case this brand is new to you, AVI-8 (pronounced “aviate”) is a watchmaker whose pieces are inspired by military aircraft, from the iconic Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane, to the P-51 Mustang, Bell X-1 and Typhoon.

For the 80th anniversary of VE-Day, AVI-8 has announced three new models, each available in two colour schemes and all priced at £350 / $350. All models feature nods to Winston Churchill’s ‘V for victory’ salute, which appears on the case back and in place of the 8 of those models with a date window, and all are water resistant to 50 metres.

The dials of these watches also include Morse code for the letter V (three dots and a dash), while the five and eight of the dials are highlighted to recognise the date of Germany’s surrender. Another detail is how the inside of the leather strap features the first four notes of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, which sounds similar to V written in Morse code. All models are powered by Japanese automatic movements and are protected by a sapphire crystal.

AVI-8 has applied the VE-Day treatment to watches from its P-51 Mustang, Spitfire Type 300 and Hawker Hurricane Kent collections. Each watch is available in a dark or light colour scheme, with the former leaning heavily on greyscale colour ways, while the latter pairs brown leather straps with pale brown dials that pack a strong vintage aesthetic.

Highlights across the range include the fully guarded crown of the P-51 Mustang model, which also has a dial design that echoes the German Instrument of Surrender, which was signed in Berlin on 8 May and marked the end of World War 2 in Europe. This model also features the dot-dot-dash Morse code for V at the three o’clock position, and a date window with Churchills' V-for-victory salute appearing on the 8th of every month.

All six watches have glowing lume for night time visibility, but go about it in different ways. The darker versions of each model, with their greyscale dials and black strap, have only their hands glow, while the entire dial of the pale brown versions lights up. As is common across the AVCI-8 range, every model of this collection resembles the instruments of vintage military aircraft.

Finally, a note on production numbers. AVI-8 is producing 800 units in total, across all six VE-Day watches. The darker variants are by far the rarer models, with just 75 examples each for the P-51 Mustang and Spitfire Type 300 (versus 225 for the pale brown version). The Hawker Hurricane Kent watch is even rarer, with just 50 examples of the black model and 150 for the beige.