Big Pilot Le Petit Prince / Stainless Steel

In Context

At 46 mm it is a large watch — well above this catalogue’s 40 mm median, and enough to dominate a narrow wrist. At 15.8 mm it is a tall case, and it will catch on a cuff. The case back is closed, so the movement stays out of sight, and the sapphire crystal will resist everything short of deliberate abuse. 60 m covers rain and hand-washing comfortably; it is not a watch to swim in.

The movement winds itself from the motion of your wrist. 168 hours of reserve puts it well past a weekend — several days off the wrist and it is still going. At 21,600 vph the seconds hand advances 6 times a second, the slower and more audible rate of an older design.

IW5009-08 is one of 8 executions of the IW5009 base reference. Underneath they are the same watch; what separates this one is a blue sunburst dial and a stainless steel case. It was a limited edition.

A seven-day movement wound by IWC's Pellaton system, in which a cam on the rotor rocks a pair of pawls so that motion in either direction feeds the barrel. The 168-hour reserve comes from a single oversized barrel rather than two, and the slow 3 Hz beat is what lets one barrel run that long. Compared with the 51011 it gains a balance bridge in place of a balance cock — anchored at both ends, so the balance staff stays truer under shock.

35 other watches in the library run the IWC 51111.

IWC

Big Pilot Laureus Charity Night Zurich

IW5004-ZH · 46.2 mm

IWC

Big Pilot Laureus Charity Night Shanghai

IW5004-SH · 46.2 mm

IWC

Big Pilot Edition Stainless Steel / Black / Muhammad Ali

IW5004-33 · 46.2 mm

IWC

Big Pilot Red Gold / Black / Orsini Buenos Aires

IW5004-23 · 46.2 mm