IWC Schaffhausen marks the 140th anniversary of Mercedes-Benz with a limited-edition timepiece that honours one of watchmaking’s longest-running partnerships with the automotive world. Since Carl Benz filed the patent for the first automobile 140 years ago, Mercedes-Benz has shaped the history and future of mobility through pioneering technology, safety, comfort, and design, an ambition the marque now celebrates under the theme “140 Years of Innovation.”
To mark the occasion, IWC unveils the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet 140 Years Mercedes-Benz, limited to 140 pieces, with each one embodying a year of pioneering innovation in Mercedes-Benz’s history.
The partnership between the two houses stretches back over two decades. Based on a shared passion for engineering, performance, and design, IWC Schaffhausen became a partner of Mercedes-AMG in 2004, and since 2013 has served as the “Official Engineering Partner” of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team.
Over the years, the two brands have joined forces on projects including special edition watches inspired by the G-Class, alongside customer experiences ranging from Formula One race visits to Driving Experiences behind the wheel of Mercedes-AMG’s most powerful sports cars.
“For 22 years, we have been part of the Mercedes-Benz brand universe, and what began as a partnership has grown into a friendship, built on mutual respect and deep admiration for each other’s work,” said Chris Grainger-Herr, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen. “Our collaboration is rooted in shared values: a passion for world-class engineering, uncompromising performance, and visionary design.”
Echoing that sentiment, Mathias Geisen, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Sales & Customer Experience, added, “Since 1886, Mercedes-Benz has never simply measured time, but defined eras. Together with IWC Schaffhausen, we celebrate a shared belief that true progress is born from craftsmanship, innovation, and attention to every detail.”
As Mercedes-Benz celebrates the milestone with “140 Years. 140 Places.”, a campaign that sees three new S-Class saloons travelling to 140 selected locations worldwide, covering more than 50,000 kilometres across six continents, IWC’s new timepiece stands as a fitting companion to this global celebration of technology, heritage, and pioneering spirit.
At the heart of the new Big Pilot’s Watch lies the Perpetual Calendar ProSet, one of IWC’s most innovative developments in perpetual calendars in decades, first introduced earlier this year at Watches and Wonders in Geneva. IWC’s journey into mechanical calendars began in 1985, when the company presented the perpetual calendar developed by legendary watchmaker Kurt Klaus. With the Perpetual Calendar ProSet, the brand has now completely reimagined this complication, long considered one of the greatest challenges in watchmaking.
The new module is based entirely on gears and protected by four patents. As a result, the calendar can now be adjusted forward and, for the first time, also backward using a single position of the crown, making adjustments in both directions as easy and intuitive as setting the time itself.
Unlike most traditional perpetual calendars, the ProSet requires no additional pushers, no changes in crown position, and no complicated setting menus. Behind this apparent simplicity lies a genuine engineering feat, requiring components with intricate and highly complex geometries. On the sapphire-glass case back, the first joint logo of Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie. commemorates the coming together of the two pioneering companies in 1926.
This precision extends to the dial itself, where the Perpetual Calendar ProSet displays its information across four subdials: the date at 3 o’clock, the month at 6 o’clock, and the day of the week at 9 o’clock, with the moon phase positioned at 12 o’clock. Thanks to a newly calculated reduction gear, the display will deviate by only one day after 1,040 years. IWC’s signature Double Moon® ensures the moon is shown correctly for viewers in both the northern and southern hemispheres, while the four-digit year display, another hallmark of IWC’s perpetual calendars, sits between 7 and 8 o’clock on the dial.
The Perpetual Calendar ProSet is powered by the IWC-manufactured 82665 calibre, featuring a nickel-phosphorus escapement and a silicon hairspring. The bidirectional Pellaton automatic winding system is reinforced with ceramic components and builds up a power reserve of 60 hours in the mainspring.
The brushed and polished 42-millimetre stainless steel case frames a black dial with solid gold appliqués and gold-plated hands, with the minute track printed in white for easy legibility. On the sapphire-glass case back, a historic logo commemorates the milestone occasion: introduced in 1926 following the merger of Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) with Benz & Cie., it was the first logo for Mercedes-Benz, combining the laurel wreath adopted from the Benz emblem with DMG’s emblematic three-pointed star.
Beyond this singular release, the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet 140 Years Mercedes-Benz joins a wider collection reflecting many facets of Mercedes-Benz, from the Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41 AMG and a series of Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team watches launched since 2022, to two special editions celebrating the shared utilitarian heritage of the Big Pilot’s Watch and the iconic G-Class, including IWC’s first watch with a case made of ceramic matrix composite (CMC), developed with the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
Together, these timepieces chart the course of a partnership built not on convenience, but on a shared belief in engineering, performance, and design, one that, 22 years on, continues to move forward, and now, for the first time, backward too.
