WT_2002_06: TEST: IWC BIG PILOT'S WATCH

TEST: IWC BIG PILOT’S WATCHIWC has come up with another technicallyinteresting and distinctively different watchto add to its impressive lineup. Allow us torefresh your memory: Recent newcomers includethe Deep One diver’s watch with its builtinbathymeter (depth gauge) and the new Portuguese2000 with its big, IWC-made, manufactureCaliber 5000 for seven days of powerreserve. This year’s debutante is “Die GrosseFliegeruhr,“ or The Big Pilot’s Watch, whichbears reference number 5002. If you get achance to see one of these timepieces in all itsgrand dimensions, you’ll wonder if you can indeedstrap it to your wrist. Its diameter, thickness,and weight give this behemoth the dimensionsof a solidly crafted pocket-watchrather than a modern wristwatch. However,thanks to companies like IWC and Panerai,ideals of beauty in the watch world have shiftedin recent years towards bigger wristwatches,so once you get over your first impressionthat the watch is too damn largeyou’ll start to admire its beauty.Once you strap it on, all doubtsabout its dimensions vanish withouta trace. A gentle forwardswing of the forearm, a returnswing backwards, just to be surethat this large watch will fit underyour shirt cuff, and before youknow it, you feel as though youand The Big Pilot’s Watch havebeen friends for years.The direct ancestor on whichthe newcomer from Schaffhausen, Switzerlandis patterned is the legendary Caliber 52 s. c.(s.c. stands for seconde au centre, i.e. centrallyaxial “sweep” seconds-hand), which datesfrom 1940. Commissioned by the German andBritish admiralties, IWC designed this caliber tomeet the needs of navigators at sea and in theair. Only 1,200 Caliber 52 s.c. movements wereYou’ll find yourselflamenting theefficiency withwhich The Big Pilot’sWatch windsitself, as manuallywinding it is asensual pleasure.built, approximately 1,000 aslarge-format pilot’s watches andthe remaining 200 as pocketwatchesfor use as deck watches.Constructed to satisfy the strictmilitary criteria, these navigator’swatches (so-called “B watches,class 1”) were individually testedat the German naval observatory.A genuine innovation in thosedays was the soft iron inner casethat protected the movementagainst the ill effects of excessivemagnetism in the cockpits of fighter planes andother military aircraft, a requirement specifiedby the military procurements offices on bothsides of the English Channel. Collectors may beinterested to learn that alongside IWC, similarlylarge, top-quality pilot’s watches were alsobuilt during the war years by A. Lange & Söhne,Laco, Stowa, and Wempe in Hamburg.The Caliber 5011 isimmaculately craftedand beautifullydecorated. Thesecond cover, whichis part of the softiron inner case, isreadily visible.68 WatchTime December 2002