Singer, songwriter and guitarist John Mayer has been seen wearing his IWC Big Pilot reference 5002 on tour since he chose it as one of his earliest luxury watch purchases in 2002. He now has amassed quite a watch collection, and has said often that this incredible watch began his love affair with horology. When he won his first Grammy in 2003, he celebrated by buying another IWC.
His love for the Big Pilot was so deep, that tour managers began to call him “Big Pilot”. These days, his collection includes all his favourites from the modern lines, but he also has a very special centrepiece: one of the original B-Uhren style Big Pilot’s Watches from the 1940s. He was able to secure one of the remaining pieces from the original run of 2,000. In an interview with the New York Times in 2015, he said, “It’s a watch I identify with, that people identify with me. Now, all it does is tell the time and the date, that’s it. But, man, how it does it.”
And that’s the story of a great watch, after all. It may only tell the time, but the weight of a well-made timepiece on the wrist brings a sense of satisfaction like very little else in the world. A finish crafted to perfection by skilled hands and the beauty of a design that ignites the senses create a feeling that sparks a passion.
Lewis Hamilton, seven-time FIA Formula 1 World Drivers’ Champion, is also a great fan of IWC watches. He seems to have a particular fondness for the Big Pilot models. He was named as an ambassador for the brand in 2013 and has collaborated on two models with the brand.
IWC has much in common with Mayer and Hamilton as icons who have fought long odds for their admired status. Risk taking, incredible resilience, loyalty and dedication to perfection are the key traits that have brought IWC, and especially the highly respected and iconic Big Pilot’s Watch, to the top of their game.
THE BEGINNINGS
Florentine Ariosto Jones was an American engineer from Boston, Massachusetts. Little is known about his early life beyond the details of his birth in 1841 in New Hampshire and his service in the 13th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. On his enlistment records, the young man listed his occupation as “watchmaker” and, indeed, he began working with one of America’s most prestigious watch companies, E. Howard & Co, immediately after the war ended.
By 1867, Jones had risen to superintendent of the factory. He decided to take what he’d learnt about
