IWC Big Pilot Top Gun Perpetual Calendar IW502902 Review

From the day the original Big Pilot 5002 was released by IWC in the early 2000s, I have been a huge fan. The 5002 took its design from the pilot’s watches created by IWC for the German Luftwaffe in the 1940s. This B-Uhr watch was well over 50 mm in size and its defining features were the easy to read dial and oversized crown which could be operated with flight gloves.

In 2002 IWC released the Big Pilot 5002, which scaled back to the case size to a wearable 46 mm while keeping most of the design elements from the B-UHR in place. To me at the time, one of the defining features of the new Big Pilot was the seven day power reserve which the watch featured. At the time you were lucky to have a watch that would last over two days. IWC could actually get eight days out of the watch, but the last day didn’t keep super accurate time, so it was limited to seven days.



The 5002 kept the brown leather strap, now in textured buffalo leather, along with the rivets found near where the strap meets the case. The extremely legible dial was kept, but now a power reserve indicator was added at 3 o’clock and a date was added at 6 o’clock. The 5002 also retained the oversized onion crown found on the B-UHR.

The 5002 was the blank canvas, that IWC would now use to create numerous variations of the Big Pilots Watch. We would see everything from plain time only watches, to chronographs and all the way to Big Pilot Tourbillons. We even saw IWC size down the Big Pilot to 43 mm and size them up to 55 mm with the Heritage 55. With so much dial real estate to play with, IWC could do so much with the Big Pilot.

Over the years I’ve owned and worn numerous Big Pilots. My first memorable experience with the Big Pilot was getting engaged in New York City in a 5002. When it came time to purchase my first Big Pilot I picked the titanium Heritage version of the watch, which I was able to find an original new 5002 buffalo leather strap for. This watch was around on the day our twin daughters were born, and will always be special to me.



Having owned a Top Gun Chronograph in black ceramic, I decided that I would like to own a ceramic Big Pilot as well. I had the Big Pilot Top Gun on my list, but was unable to find one at a good price. I did however find a good deal on a Big Pilot Miramar in ceramic. This watch had polished ceramic and a muted dial, this combination really didn’t play well with me when the watch was in hand.



The stark difference of the matte black ceramic and white dial on the Top Gun watches was still in the back of my mind. Now having two Big Pilots, I decided it was time to try to trade both on a Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar. My first run in with the Big Pilot Perpetual was when I met up with John Mayer back in the late 2000s to purchase his limited to 50 Cellini Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar in titanium. We could not agree on a price and I didn’t end up buying the watch. The watch was amazing though, and with so much space on the dial, the perpetual calendar was probably executed better than any perpetual calendar I had even seen.

For my personal Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar, there were really only two choices, either the Top Gun or Rodeo Drive variants. The Top Gun was in matte black ceramic at 48 mm with a black dial and then Rodeo Drive was in matte black ceramic at 46.5 mm with a blue dial. I actually really preferred the Top Gun since the black dial and white markers just looked better in my opinion.

After what was probably months of searching for a dealer that would trade my two Big Pilots for a ceramic Big Pilot Perpetual, I finally found one that didn’t want too much cash on top to do the trade. Luckily for me, the watch in question watch the Top Gun variant. Even with how much I loved the 5002 and how much the Heritage meant to me, I knew this was pretty much the ultimate Big Pilot for me and should be in my collection permanently.



The Big Pilot Top Gun Perpetual Calendar IW502902 was released in 2012 and until the release of the Rodeo Drive Perpetual Calendar in 2019, was the only Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar that was not a limited edition release. The Top Gun was also one of the only Big Pilots released in the 48 mm size, most other Big Pilots were 46 mm. Another difference with the Top Gun was that it’s textured black leather strap did not feature any rivets, which was a big departure from known Big Pilots.



Powering the Top Gun Perpetual Calendar is the IWC in-house caliber 51614. This caliber features 62 jewels and keeps the Big Pilots seven day power reserve. The self-winding movement has the following functions: Moonphase, Hours, Minutes, Small Seconds, Power Reserve indicator, Day of the Week, Year, Month and date. This movement will not need to be reprogrammed until the year 2499.

The Top Gun Perpetual Calendar uses the perpetual calendar module created by IWC master watchmaker Kurt Klaus in 1985. This ingenious module only required 81 parts to make the perpetual calendar function, which is a huge simplification of this high complication. Another defining feature of this module, is that all calendar functions can be set by just using the crown. This made setting the date so easy, that there was really no need to keep the watch on a winder to avoid the dangerous and time intensive task of setting the date with pushers. The only nitpicking negatives to this module is that the date can only be set forward and you have to be careful when setting the dates at certain night time hours. This actually did apply to my experience, since the watch I bought was set one month ahead. That meant that I had to stop the movement and wait a month to actually wear the watch with the correct date. It was a big inconvenience, but made the anticipation of wearing the watch that much more rewarding. I even had friends that would ask how long I had left until I could wear the watch.



You would think with how large the Top Gun Perpetual Calendar is, that it would wear like a heavy large watch, but in reality it is a watch that I sometimes forget I’m wearing. The case is made out of ceramic, while the caseback, crown and deployment clasp are made out of titanium. This fusion of lightweight materials makes the Big Pilot much more pleasant to wear than even a simple time only stainless steel Big Pilot. The Top Gun Perpetual Calendar wears at a pretty similar weight to the titanium Heritage and ceramic Miramar time only Big Pilots I previously had.

The matte black ceramic does a much better job of keeping fingerprints and smudges off of the case versus the polished ceramic of the Miramar and my wife’s Hublot Big Bang All Black as well. The matte black of the case with the bright white of the hands and dial markings really make this watch easy to read at a glance, even with everything that is going on with the dial. The lume on the hands and dial is also fairly strong and make night time telling easy. IWC also made the smart decision to keep all time keeping hands in white, while all date related hands are in red. The large white hour and minute hands also make telling the time an easy and quick task if you want to ignore all the calendar data.



If I could change one thing on the Big Pilot Top Gun Perpetual Calendar it would be the caseback. While the Rodeo Drive features a display caseback where you can see the beauty of the in-house movement and the massive rotor, the Top Gun features a solid caseback with the logo of the United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program, or better known as Top Gun. This logo is in color and isn’t something I really care for on the watch. It doesn’t really distract from the watch while being worn, but a display case back would have been nice. I guess there could be some loss in magnetic protection with the display back, so I guess there was a reason for it. At least IWC didn’t go as far as to make a hand featuring a fighter jet like some of the Top Gun models have on their center seconds hand.



The Sapphire crystal has an AR coating on it that drastically reduces reflections, but as with my personal model can develop light scratches. I’ve also noticed on other IWC Pilots watches with AR coating, is that they develop fingerprints rather easily and are kind of hard to completely wipe off.

At 16 mm of case thickness, this is really not a watch to be worn under a cuff. More so this watch was meant to be worn over a flight jacket. Typically I wear t-shirts and hoodies, and this watch works just fine with those. With the mostly black design, the Top Gun Perpetual Calendar is a real sleeper, it’s not a watch that is going to get many comments or looks. If somebody deep into watches sees it, they will be like wow that guy is wearing a Big Pilot, but then on closer inspection will know it’s something a little more special.



The way I tend to rotate watches, the Big Pilot Top Gun Perpetual Calendar gets worn at least twice a week. Unless something strange happens and I end up not wearing a watch for a week, I never really need to wind or set it. If in the rare case the watch needs to be set, it’s a quick few turns of the crown and you get to see the satisfying changing of the calendar if you advance a day or more. With the scratch resistance of ceramic, the Top Gun also makes a great daily watch, since you don’t constantly have to be worrying about scratching up the case. Most times you get a “scratch” it’s more than likely a transfer of a metal to the ceramic case, which can be removed with a pencil eraser type of rubber.



I also love that the watch comes on a deployment clasp. I believe expensive watches should be on a deployment to avoid the accidental dropping of a watch when putting it on the wrist. I did replace the strap and spring bars since they were marginal costs when talking about the price of the watch, and getting new spring bars from IWC just gives me a bit more peace of mind with such a watch. Who knows what type of spring bars the last owner put in, twenty dollars on OEM spring bars are a great and worthy insurance policy.

So to sum everything up… The IWC Big Pilot Top Gun Perpetual Calendar is in my opinion the perfect Big Pilot. It is a watch I believe so much in, that I have a lot of money parked in it that could be used on many other watches or combinations of watches. The extreme lightweight nature of ceramic and titanium, along with the toughness of ceramic makes this a perfect daily watch for me. On a personal note, my wardrobe mainly consists of black t-shirts from brands like Supreme, Neighborhood and Palace, so having an all black watch like the Top Gun blends right in my with “teenager hypebeast” style…