IWC Schaffhausen adds four new models to its Pilot’s Watch collection: the Big Pilot’s Watch Annual Calendar Edition “Antoine de Saint Exupéry”, the Big Pilot’s Watch Heritage, available with a case in either titanium or bronze, and the Pilot’s Watch Mark XVIII Heritage. After having presented you the watch dedicated to Antoine de Saint Exupéry, today, let’s discover the two Big Pilot’s Watch Heritage alternative models.

As every other Pilot’s Watches created by the brand, these new models have the same retro design as the historic Big Pilot’s Watch (Calibre 52 T.S.C.) from the 1940s. The Big Pilot’s Watch Heritage is available either with a titanium case (Ref. IW501004) or with a bronze case (Ref. IW501005). However, both timepieces have a black dial and blue hands coated with luminescent material.

Big Pilot’s Watch Heritage with titanium case © IWC

Spinning after every 24 hours, the world has a hand over it that suggests either a second time zone or could be set to be a synchronized 24-hour hand. The hand and the globe is able to move independently, which is of course part of the inherent complexity of this machine. Transferring the 24-hour GMT hand across the world is where more interesting fun comes in, as it is connected to the “dual drum” reference city selector placed just within the entire world system. This is maybe one of my preferred complications from the Bovet Recital 18 Shooting Star.When you press in the summit, the reference city advances. To acquire all 24 big time zones, there’s a drum which sits inside of the outer drum. This makes more sense once you see it in operation – and it is super cool. I’ve always enjoyed rolling drum-style screens, but they are rather uncommon. Christophe Claret is a particular fan of these and made such drums into Jean Dunand watches (lastest one here), and most of the present timepieces from Maîtres du Temps. In the Bovet Recital 18 Shooting Star, Bovet designed these carefully moving drums to function together with the indicator arrow to indicate that the second time zone in conjunction with the GMT hand that goes over the globe. It works surprisingly well and is elegant in its implementation on top of that. Moreover, playing with the system by pressing in the crown is most likely just too temping a means of overworking the movement and potentially prematurely breaking something, because the owner of a Recital 18 will likely be playing with this complication a long time.

The edition in bronze is limited to 1,500 pieces. Both watches are driven by the IWC-manufactured calibre 52110 with a Pellaton winding system and a 7-day power reserve. A power reserve display at “3 o’clock” indicates the charging level at all times. These two new timepieces are equipped with a brown calfskin strap.

Big Pilot’s Watch Heritage with bronze case © IWC