BIG PILOT ANNUAL CALENDAR SS IW5027 "LE PETIT PRINCE" AZF 1:1 BEST EDITION

[peter4103]

Hi,

i’ve ordered an IWC big pilot calendar ss IW5027 “le petit Prince” AZF 1:1 best edition at Puretime a few weeks back and waiting for the QC. I came back to the RWI forum after putting in the order, and have been reading bits and pieces about IWC reps and am now not sure if I made a good decision making this choice. I am reading AZF has quality issues? Is that the overall opinion, or is this with some of the reps they produce? Some pics of the watch I ordered below. Would love to hear your specialist opinion! Thanks!

 

[peter4103]

The QC came in today.

 

[Lexington_120]

nice watch

 

[peter4103]

The IWC QC fully approved yesterday, although it has a different strap vs the one I ordered. I am fine with it and will order a new high quality strap once the watch arrives.

 

[ShiroTenshi]

The AZF/APS annual calendar LPPs are nice, especially the rotor, and very chunky at 46mm. Movement functions seem to be per gen which means you have to go through all the dates to reach the correct month, can't be bothered honestly, especially not at the risk of wearing up the movement gears. Rep strap is actually not too bad.

 

[peter4103]

The watch arrived yesterday. I still have to do a close inspection in good light, but I already have set the watch and put it on my wrist for the first time. The movement is indeed exactly the same as the gen watch, so setting the calendar is quite straightforward. The strap is low quality, so immediately ordered a different strap for the watch. The case looks very nice, good finish. There are differences with the gen watch, which I knew when ordering. Then again, how much of us will actually see a gen in real live. ;-)

I’ll play around with the watch in the coming weeks and then will post a more in depth ‘review’ of the watch. Not to make a 1:1 comparison with the gen, but to provide a bit more detail on the rep watch.

 

[Lexington_120]

Nice watch !!

Where you buy your new strap ??

And what is the differences with gen ?

 

[peter4103]

The gen has a brown strap (i am replacing the rep strap with a gen brown strap). The gen does not have silver around the numbers on the dial, the rep does. The gen has the watch number on the back side marked as xx/250, the rep has it in words (one of twohundredfifty). The Gen has the words le petit prince on the back, the rep does not. So its predominantly on the back of the case. The movement works same as gen. The one i have now has a 0,005second delay, so very very very good. I’ll do a kore in dept write up in a few weeks.

Pictures of the gen:

Pictures of the rep:


Price of the gen: 24,500$
Price of the rep: 500$ plus payment fee (10%) and shipping
TD: Puretime

 

[ShiroTenshi]

the RG version is more accurate in that aspect

IW502701-Big Pilot’s Watch Annual Calendar Edition “Le Petit Prince”

www.iwc.com

 

[peter4103]

From what I can spot on the RG picture the differences looks to be the same, right? Having said that, the RG is really beautiful too!

 

[ShiroTenshi]

From what I can spot on the RG picture the differences looks to be the same, right? Having said that, the RG is really beautiful too!

u meant the rim around the numbers? the gen has it as well as the rep. However note the font of the "Annual Calendar", iirc the rep uses the font from render pics however the actual gen is another font.

 

[peter4103]

I didn’t see that before, but now do see the difference in font. I wasn’t aware either that the gen does have the rim around the numbers (I thought it does not.)

 

[Lemans24h]

There is one of these currently for sale on WatchFinder and it definitely does have the outline around the numbers in the same way as the 5009-08 from 2014, this is most visible in the second angled picture, I assume the use of very white light for the photos is dismissing it on the tire straight on view. The biggest difference immediately noticeable through the case back is the gen watch has a blue movement, strangely the gen watch they have has the exact markings as the rose gold one above so is exactly as per the rep.

Watchfinder - Big Pilot Annual Calendar

 

[peter4103]

I now found the 2016 edition, which has the rims around the numbers indeed, and the slightly different font.

 

[peter4103]

And the back:

 

[peter4103]

Updated the strap. Chose the one below (for the watch you can chose your strap when ordering with IWC):

 

[Lemans24h]

Very nice indeed, you went the opposite way to me, I chose the genuine strap without rivets for my 5009-08 LPP

Seeing that does make me wish I went for the annual calendar model, went for a basic movement for my first rep but fancy one of these next maybe

 

[peter4103]

Very nice indeed, you went the opposite way to me, I chose the genuine strap without rivets for my 5009-08 LPP

Seeing that does make me wish I went for the annual calendar model, went for a basic movement for my first rep but fancy one of these next maybe

It works like a charm, and exactly as the gen. So operating the watch is just watching the gen video explanation. Once the annual calendar is set, you are good to go. Accuracy of my IWC is great (loses about 2-3 seconds a day only.)

 

[peter4103]

Nice watch !!

Where you buy your new strap ??

And what is the differences with gen ?

I have ordered it at a local shop in the Netherlands. They sell hand crafted straps which are per the gen specs,
For about half the gen costs.

 

[spursian]

Jacobs makes pretty good straps for IWC pilots.