IWC and Mercedes have teamed up again for another special-edition watch. Just 140 Big Pilot’s watches will mark the Benz Patent-Motorwagen’s debut. Its 42 mm moon display needs correcting by only one day every 1,040 years. Mercedes is celebrating 140 years since Karl Benz patented his original automobile, and longtime partner IWC has cooked up a birthday gift for the occasion. It’s called the IWC Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet 140 Years Mercedes-Benz, which makes it sound like the naming process was outsourced to China, though the watch itself was carefully crafted in Switzerland. The 140-year connection takes us back to 1886, when Benz debuted what’s generally regarded as the first combustion-powered automobile, though not the first self-propelled vehicle. Gottlieb Daimler produced his motorized carriage soon afterwards, and the companies they founded eventually merged in 1926, creating the business that would become Mercedes-Benz as we know it. Related: Singer’s $31,120 Watch Is The Budget Option When The Cars Trade For $3 Million That 1926 merger gets a neat nod on the back of IWC’s new watch. Beneath the sapphire glass is the first combined Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie. logo, pairing Benz’s laurel wreath with Daimler’s three-pointed star. Production is naturally limited to 140 examples, one for each year since Benz got the automotive ball rolling. IWC, Mercedes For anyone whose watch knowledge begins and ends with wondering where their Apple Watch charger went, IWC is a Swiss luxury watchmaker founded in Schaffhausen in 1868 by American watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones. It’s particularly well known for Pilot’s Watches, chronographs and what watch buffs called “complicated” mechanical calendars. But complicated in the layman’s sense of the word also definitely applies here. The 42 mm stainless steel Big Pilot’s watch uses IWC’s new Perpetual Calendar ProSet, which tracks the date, day, month, year and moon phase. Its moon display is apparently accurate enough to be wrong by just one day after 1,040 years. So whoever inherits it around the year 3066 might finally have something to complain about. Single Crown Position For All Functions The real story is inside, where you’ll find IWC’s Calibre 82655 automatic movement that runs at 28,800 vibrations/hour and delivers a 60-hour power reserve. Cleverly, everything can be adjusted both forwards and backwards from a single crown position. Traditional perpetual calendars can be rather less forgiving if you accidentally sail past the correct date. And the standard rubber strap can easily be swapped for something else. Mercedes and IWC aren’t exactly strangers. Their relationship dates to 2004 through Mercedes-AMG, while IWC became an official engineering partner of Mercedes’ Formula 1 team in 2013. The pair have since produced numerous automotive-themed watches, including G-Class-inspired Big Pilots. With only 140 being made, a perpetual calendar inside and roughly seven watches‘ worth of words in its name, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that it costs about what a decent new Mercedes does. There’s no US price in the announcement, but in Germany it starts at 40,900 euros or about $47,200 at current exchange rates. IWC, Mercedes
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