IWC Schaffhausen
IWC’s Big Pilot’s Family Welcomes Its First Chronograph
IWC Schaffhausen
IWC’s Big Pilot’s Family Welcomes Its First Chronograph
Read all about IWC Schaffhausen’s 2021 Big Pilot’s Watch collection, here.
The Big Pilot
And then there’s the Big Pilot. There are tons of pilot’s watches by countless manufacturers great and small, but there is only one Big Pilot — and it’s made by IWC. Nothing IWC does must disturb the distinctiveness of this iconic line. Massive in girth and charisma, IWC is not gunning for record book thinness with the Big Pilot but rather something robust. Long running times have made the power reserve indicator a natural complication to inhabit the expanse of the dial face, and size too has made the Big Pilot a most well-suited canvas for display-heavy complications like perpetual calendar, annual calendar, big date and constant force tourbillon.
At Last, A Chronograph
Not only is ref. IW515202 the first-ever chronograph in the Big Pilot line, the IWC-manufactured cal. 59360 beating within is also the company’s only manual wind chronograph movement.
Every press of the monopusher turns the column wheel by one position, courtesy of the teeth at its lower level. At its upper level visible through the caseback, the state of the chronograph is determined by the position of three levers relative to the column wheel, between resting on the six columns or the recesses between them.
IWC used the LIGA process imported from the semiconductor industry to fabricate parts of the cal. 59360, attaining complex geometries and dimensional tolerances not possible with conventional machining techniques.
Does this Big Pilot chronograph move us? A 60-minute totalizer is more versatile in use and more intuitive in reading than the standard 30-minute totalizer found in most chronographs, especially when the latter is also paired with a 12-hour register. And it’s only right that a Big Pilot should not stray too far from its profile whatever its face displays, since this is what makes it a Big Pilot along with its size.
Tech Specs
IWC Big Pilot’s Watch Monopusher Edition “Le Petit Prince”
Ref: IW515202
Movement: Manual wind caliber 59365; 8 days power reserve
Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, date, chronograph with 60-minute totalizer
Case: 46.2mm; stainless steel; display caseback; water resistant to 6 bar
Dial: Blue; Super-LumiNova filled applied hour markers
Strap: Brown calfskin strap with folding clasp
Price: CHF 16,900 (approx. USD 18,260)
Availability: Limited edition of 200 pieces