IWC Big Pilot's Watch

Big Watch. In the 1930's IWC built started building large wristwatches which easier to read. One of these, created for businessmen was the Portuguese, the other, created for aviators, was the "Big Pilots" watch. The Big Pilots Watch was created in 1939. It was the largest wristwatch ever created with a case diameter of 55mm and a height of 16.5mm. This watch was supplied to the German Luftwaffe in 1940. The modern day big pilots watch is not as imposing, but its 46.2mm case diameter and height of 15mm is still massive.

The watch is available in stainless steel or white gold. The case is water resistant to 60 meters. The dial of the watch is fairly simple displaying only time, date and power reserve. The power reserve in one of the more interesting features of this watch. Like the other pilot's watches in the IWC line-up, this watch features a soft soft iron inner case for protection against magnetic fields, but no indication as to their resistance to magnetism is provided in the watches specifications, but IWC anti-magnetic Pilots watches usually are rated between 24,000-32,000 A/m (300-400 gauss).

Movement. The IWC Big Pilots watch belongs to their 50000 series, being powered by their own Calibre 51111 movement. This self-winding movement produces 21,600 vibrations per hour and has an 8.5 day power reserve, however the watch will only run for 7 days when fully wound. A mechanism stops the watch when it only has 1.5 days power left. This is because, according to IWC "the torque that drives the movement decreases as the mainspring winds down, leading to a loss of amplitude in the balance and the unacceptable possibility of inaccuracy." I don't think it will matter much if you wear it frequently. A long power reserve is not usually a feature in automatic watches. IWC does have a tendency of doing things a bit differently from everybody else.


The Calibre 51111 movement also features the Pellaton Winding System, which was created by than IWC Technical Director, Albert Pellaton in the 1940's. Unlike the design of other watches, the movement of the rotor is not transmitted to a wheel train via a gear system but through a cam. This supposedly makes the rotor wheel more durable.

Price. This watch retails at US$12,500, and the white gold version almost double that. Surprisingly, even the lower of the two prices is 150% higher than the price of the IWC Aquatimer 2000, Ingenieur and Spitfire UTC which we have featured here. Given these other IWC watches have, in my opinion, more interesting features, the price of the Big Pilot's seems rather expensive for what you get.

About IWC. IWC or the the "International Watch Co. Schaffhausen" was founded by an American engineer from Boston, Florentine Ariosto Jones, in Schaffhausen, Switzerland in the year 1868. IWC Schaffhausen is notable for being the only major Swiss watch factory located in eastern Switzerland, as the majority of the well-known Swiss watch manufacturers are located in western Switzerland.