SOTC # 4 of 16: IWC BIG PILOT 5009-12

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IWC BIG PILOT 5009-12 on an IWC BUFFALO STRAP

I’ve always had an eye on the Big Pilot for some time. It’s an amazing watch, with so much history, going back to the flieger watches from the World War II era. It’s a classic but modern design, with the iconic large diamond crown and orientation triangle marker at 12 o’clock for easy visibility. But being a few years late and a few dollars short, the original Big Pilot, the 5002, was already long discontinued by 2016 and I wasn’t much of a fan of the newest version. The 9 was missing, the fonts were thinner, it was on an alligator strap.

SIHH 2016 changed that with the announcement of the newest Big Pilot 5009-12 model. The 9 is back on the dial, it had slightly bolder fonts, and it was on a nice Santoni calf leather strap. This is the Big Pilot that I’ve being waiting for!

By this time, I had accumulated about 10 watches in total. There were five Omega’s plus five more affordable watches. To fund the Big Pilot purchase, I decided to sell two of the Omegas plus all five affordable watches to Govberg in Philadelphia for a new Big Pilot.

So on June 11, 2016, I took a red eye flight from LA to Philly using my miles with seven watches plus boxes and papers in tow. Landed at 6am, rented a car, drove to Govberg and waited. By 10:05am, I was an owner of a new IWC Big Pilot 5009-12. It was the most significant watch purchase to date at that time. I spent the rest of the day visiting the Rocky Steps, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and had a Philly Cheesesteak for lunch. It was a beautiful day in Philly.

That was a memorable trip and the most outlandish thing that I had done to acquire a watch yet, at least by my standards. That summer, I continued to travel heavily for business, virtually commuting to Dallas every week and flying back to LA for the weekends. It was a Monday morning 5am wake up call to go to the airport, 4 hour meetings over design and user experience, non-stop QA and testing, sushi dinners with friends, drinking past midnight, getting back home in LA at 11pm on Friday night, spending the weekend at the beach, then repeating it all over again. That was my life for several weeks. Then finally launching our new website, a new best in class experience that would eventually lead to new revenue highs. Through it all, the Big Pilot was my most trusted companion.

/ TOMMY