Reference 5002 Big Pilot Crown Replacement Revisited

Greetings to my fellow IWC Enthusiasts on this holiday weekend!

I am sure that most of the forum readers are aware that watch collectors are perhaps some of the most obsessive compulsive people you wil have the opportunity to meet. You know when you make the transition between casual watch purchaser to "watch idiot savant" when you scrutinize the most intricate details about a watch. If you know the difference between the Big Pilot 5004 and 5009, that the reference 5251 was designed on beer coaster (or cocktail napkin), if a Portugieser reference 325 hacks, or if you have taken a one second time lapse photo of your Big Pilot 5002 to confirm it is transitional, welcome to the club!

This brings up the great reference 5002 Big Pilot crown replacement issue. I am not going to open that Pandora’s Box here—at least not fully—but there is plenty of reading on this forum about the impact of a 5002 Big Pilot’s “originality” after the fish crown was replaced with the newer Probus Scafusia crown. Personally, I am in the fish crown camp. I like to keep my watch as “original” but would prefer to eliminate the worry of stripping the threads when I tighten the crown. Grudgingly, I am ok with the crown exchange. I can’t believe that I said that but I feel much better now that I did!

There is a small group of 5002 Big Pilot owners that has surprisingly been silent about this crown exchange and they might be at greater risk than the standard 5002 owner. This would be the platinum 5002 Big Pilot owner group. The platinum 5002 Big Pilots came with a white gold crown based on some research and quick consultation with other collectors. This would make sense as a platinum Big Pilot crown would be almost impossible to make given its intricacy. As a result, a platinum 5002 has a beautiful white metal case and if you look closely at the crown, it is shinier than the rest of the watch—it looks almost like polished steel. Steel? Uh oh. Now is a good time to read the first sentence of my post again.

I happen to have one of these special platinum Big Pilot 5002 and this was one of the early candidates for a crown exchange. In fact, this watch had a crown exchange before the existence of the Big Pilot 5004. This means that no other Big Pilots were produced in any precious metal and the last of the transitional 5002s were getting the new Probus crown. Did IWC have the foresight to order white gold Probus Scafusia crowns for the small group of platinum 5002 owners or would they just exchange them with steel crowns? Who would know? They look the same! As I looked at my watch, there was a little doubt. Instead of seeing the beautiful blue dial, I saw a shiny crown and the question of its composition palled over the enjoyment of this watch.

For all of you casual watch purchasers, you might be thinking “who cares”. I thank you for making it this far into my post and commend for your perseverance. For the rest of us, this could blow the lid off the 5002 Big Pilot Service Crown-gate and be the next chapter in one of the biggest scandals in the history of IWC!

Needless to say, I had to know! I looked at countless Big Pilot 5002 pictures on the internet trying to see if I could discern between white gold and steel. Of course, this was useless. Someone mentioned metallurgy and that reminded me that jewelers can test gold content! They do it all the time! After a quick visit to my local jeweler, I can let the other 499 platinum 5002 Big Pilot owners know that my crown tested as 18K white gold! As such, the crown crisis is averted— at least mine is.

I am however concerned about the stitch count on the replacement strap!

Thanks, George

Hi George, I'm like you: I do care to keep things as original as possible and you should trust the servicing party to have the same level of standards. IWC of course does ;-)

Didn't know you could test on white gold so easily!

Thanks for sharing,

BB

Hello George, this is an interesting post. I am with you on the OCD part - I have asked so many questions to IWC about the ceramic used in the 3799, that their server probably sends my mails to the spam folder now...hahaha just kidding!

It makes sense that IWC used an 18K crown as this would be platinum's closest substitute material of value. I am just guessing another technical reason - the material's hardness maybe? A steel crown would be harder than the platinum case and would leave deeper indentations on the case (where the crown's sharp conical end meets the case) when fully screwed in....this is just a guess....experts may be frowning ;-P

Well, that is indeed a very technical topic, because the hardness of fine platinum (100 %) is about 56 Vickers.

And Platin is mostly used as an alloy with 95 % platinum.

But special alloys of gold can be > 150 Vickers.

The big crown generates a huge torque to the tube screw (hardened steel) and should have a hard material (similar to the hardness of the tube) to prevent damages.

[b][i]BTW, but why a screwed crown at all ???

Many brands use unscrewed crowns for their divers ![/i][/b]

Regards

HEBE

Yes, I think that makes whole lot of sense as to why they used 18K Au - its the best trade-off. Its probably hard enough to stand up to increased stresses to the threads, soft enough not to indent the platinum case, while at the same time the next most valuable thing to platinum.

George, a fascinating post which I very much enjoyed and appreciated as a big BP fan. A Platinum 5002 is at the very top of my wish-list so this is very good to know that they didn't skimp on the replacement crowns. Thanks for sharing, oh and by the way according to my research despite numbering up to /500 (and a very odd ordering of manufacture (i.e. batches that aren't chronological, a process which still exists today) - I believe there was only ever maximum 250 of the 500 platinum blue & black ever produced...

Regards,
Thang

I enjoyed your post this morning .. Thanks!