BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
IWC has been around since 1868, which, in the world of horology, is respectable but nowhere near the oldest. Compared to cars, though, 1868 is ancient. 140 years ago, the first internal combustion engine car was made, Carl Benz’s Benz Patent-Motorwagen, but his company didn’t come around formally until 1901. Although other vehicles with internal combustion engines were conceived and built at the same time, including a motorised carriage of sorts developed by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen was the first vehicle designed from the ground up to be a motor car. With input from many folks, including his wife Bertha, Carl Benz set in motion what would become one of the most respected names in the automotive industry, a name so many people would sing about, rap about, write stories about, and dream about: Mercedes-Benz. IWC pays tribute to this outstanding legacy with a special edition perpetual calendar piece.
IWC uses the smaller size of its Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar as the basis for its tribute, which we saw earlier this year at Watches & Wonders Geneva and which I couldn’t keep my hands off. The case measures 42mm x 14mm, offers 100m of water resistance, and is made of stainless steel with a comfortable black rubber strap. Compared to the 46mm pilot watch behemoths IWC also makes, this new piece offers a more accessible wearing experience.
The dial is very classy, as one would expect when paying tribute to a name like Mercedes-Benz. The dial’s backdrop is a simple black, onto which large luminescent markers are applied. The four indications of the perpetual calendar system are well laid out, in fact, IWC’s layout like this is within my top three favourites for perpetual calendars. The moonphase is at the top at 12 o’clock, at 3 o’clock sits the date, at 6 o’clock we have the months, at 9 o’clock is the day of the week and placed discreetly between those last two is the year display. Not many perpetual calendars go as far as to display the year, but I like it, I think it shows confidence that the watch will be around for a very long time. Gold hands contrast well with the blacks and whites of the dial and, again, add class.
Behind the scenes and beneath a tinted sapphire crystal bearing a rendition of Mercedes-Benz’s 1926 wreath logo (still used on some models today) sits the self-winding calibre 82665 with 34 jewels, a 4Hz beat rate and a 60-hour power reserve. This calibre features IWC’s ProSet system, a patented gear module within the movement that allows the wearer to set the perpetual calendar forwards or backwards via the crown without risk of damage. Traditionally, perpetual calendars are set using tiny pushers embedded in the case side or caseback, but IWC’s new ProSet system does away with all of that for a much more user-friendly experience. The moonphase display has also been updated for this new calibre, and it is so accurate that it will deviate by one day in 1,040 years.
If you’re a fan of perpetual calendar pilot watches with links to German carmakers, then IWC’s new Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet 140 Years Mercedes-Benz IW329603 (yes, that really is its name) might be the watch for you. Access to it is limited, as they’re only making 140 watches, and at a cost of €40,900 apiece, it really might well be ‘The Best or Nothing’ here.
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