In a world where “vintage” rules all and therefore, any men’s watch that goes beyond 40mm (maybe 41mm now) is considered a ridiculous waste of metal, the IWC Big Pilot remains the most practical impractical tool watch that does everything it should do…and nothing more.

The year was 2012 (around Christmas), and I was working on a project in Dallas and walked into a Tourneau boutique at the Galleria and told the salesman that I was looking for a nice watch. Apple stock had, at that time, went on a tremendous run and I was looking to spend some money and unfortunately, the guy probably knew that. So he showed me the usuals - a Rolex Submariner, a Rolex Explorer II, some Cartier watch, and nothing really caught my eye. Then, he pulled out this huge IWC Big Pilot - and when I say huge, it was huge at a time when big watches were in - it was 46.2mm, had this massive onion crown, and this thick leather strap with metal rivets in it. Mind you, I knew nothing about luxury watches at this time. I said, “so tell me about this watch?”.

And to this day, I remember his words - “this is the flagship of the IWC brand - it embodies the entire history of this historic German company…all in one timepiece.” And I was thinking (silently), “given the size it appears to literally fit the entire history of the company in the watch case.” Spontaneous as I may be, I went ahead and bought the watch - I think it was $12,900 - to that point, other than a home, it was the most expensive thing I had ever purchased.

Roll this forward 8 years, and more-than-a-few luxury watches, the IWC Big Pilot still remains one piece of the collection that will never go. I’ve even gone through 2 of the smaller IWC Pilot’s watches (the 43.5mm ones - both the standard and the blue dial Le Petit Prince). And I will admit, it took a John Mayer Talking Watches video devoted to the IWC Big Pilot’s collection on Hodinkee to make me understand why I remain so attached to this behemoth, spontaneous purchase.

Everything he talks about is absolutely right - the IWC Big Pilot embodies everything a watch should be, and nothing more. There is no grand complication, rotating bezel, or gratuitous embellishment that symbolizes its value. The best part of the video is where he talks about using it as a ‘nightstand clock’ when he’s on tour…and as we all know, there are far better nightstand clocks at far cheaper prices that could do that for you 10x better than a watch ever could.

But the IWC Big Pilot has an identity about it and a functional purpose with it, that makes it the ‘flagship of IWC’ (today more than ever). The big numerals make it incredibly easy to read the time, the huge onion crown allows you to flip time zones faster than any other mechanical watch, and it has the power reserve. The dude from Tourneau kept going on about the 8-day power reserve and now I know why. In a world where watches have a lithium battery that needs to be charged every night, or have the power reserve that might get you through a couple days, I can put the IWC Big Pilot down for a full week and it’s still keeping the time. It’s a rugged watch that I used to baby until I realized that babying it destroys everything it was meant to be - a tool watch used by pilots.

So yes, you can go out and buy an amazing G-Shock with a quartz battery that will last 5 years and it will lose plus-or-minus 2 seconds per year. Given the renaissance of G-Shock, it will also probably get you far more compliments than an IWC Big Pilot will. But, it won’t ever create what we (or at least I) seek in a luxury product - functional purpose with panache. Back to that December day in 2012 and I probably could have bought 3 pre-owned Rolex Submariners that would all have doubled in value by now, and that would have been great. But, I’ve never looked at watches as investment-grade assets….and I never will. That said, if you offer me a Patek 5164A at retail price, I’ll have a credit card out faster than you can box it up.

Disclaimer: I do not advocate for spontaneous large purchases in realms of products that you know nothing about.