IWC Big Pilot - A Classic Timepiece...Over and Out!!

In 2002, IWC (International Watch Co. released, what I feel is one of their best pieces in their 150 yr. history. The Big Pilot.It is unquestionably manufactured as a homage piece to it’s Pilot’s watches of the past, and most obviously, the famous B-Uhr.

The Big Pilot has become synonymous with aviation and is a true pilot's watch. It's origins were forged in the demanding theater of Word War II air warfare but these days the Big Pilot is worn by aviators throughout the world as well as celebrities such as John Mayer and comedian Artie Lange.

IWC has a history of great movement manufacturing and the engine powering the Big Pilot continues on that same course. The original caliber 5011 movement with 7 day power reserve and date display has been updated recently to the 21,600 vph 51110 movement. This movement is the largest automatic movement in production, and is also used in several other lines including the Portuguese range.



The movement was extended to include a date display at "6 o'clock" with quick change capability. The sub-dial on the right hand side of the dial has increments from 1-7 to determine how much power reserve the automatic movement has left.


In 2006, IWC replaced the 5002 Big Pilot with the 5004 Big Pilot. The changes are more cosmetic than mechanical. They include updating the dial to fit better with the newer pilot lines IWC carries and changing out the buffalo strap to a cleaner black leather model.


(L)IWC Big Pilot 5002 (R) IWC Big Pilot 5004


IWC has also started making different versions of the Big Pilot. The newest additions are the ‘Father and Son’ models and the limited edition Big Pilot Perpetual Calendars in titanium and platinum, built in limited editions for IWCs best Authorized Dealers.

Size Matters!!

Bigger is Better! Size Matters!

We hear it all the time, don't we? The girls on Sex and the City talked about it and now, I am!! I'm just going to go in a different direction with it.

Take a trip through your local watch store. Be it a Tourneau, Wempe, or your local Saks and check out the size of watches lately. At one time Rolex was thought to demand a pretty large parcel of wrist real estate. Now, the venerable brand is miniscule compared to whats in the marketplace.

Take Panerai for instance. The uniquely militant Italian brand that is taking the luxury watch world by storm. Sure they have a few 40mm options (avg. size Rolex is 38mm) for the ladies in your life - but the majority of the collection is a stout and proud 44mm wide, and that is not including the oversized crown guard.

Breitling is another. You can see in the picture above that my Breitling Super Ocean Steelfish takes up my entire wrist from top to bottom. The watch is actually so heavy, that I had to use a Breitling sport rubber strap in place of the standard metal bracelet to shave off some oz's. Thats 43mm of steel from left to right.

There are several out there that push the envelope of size. Bell & Ross has a 42 and 46mm instrument that wears even larger because of its square shape. IWC lives and plays in the 42mm arena. But the biggest and baddest of them all. The John Holmes of luxury timepieces would have to be the U-Boat Flightdeck. 55mm of pure Italian badass. Stallone and Arnold have been seen rockin' these around town. They even look too large for them. Just to give you an idea of how large 55mm really is...the average computer mouse is 54mm wide. Yeah, I know...huge, right?

So the next time you are out and about and you overhear some ladies at the bar talking about "wider is better", they just might be talking about what's on your wrist.