Looking For A Big Pilot But Don’t Want To Pay Sky High Prices?

It’s a typical scenario, one of your favorite brands brings out a watch that you absolutely love but it so astronomically expensive that you can either never hope to afford it or it will become the only watch you ever buy. A perfect example of this is IWC’s infamous Big Pilot’s watch, a hugely popular timepiece with a price tag to match. At upwards of US$10,000 (depending on the model you choose) this will certainly not be an accessible everyday watch for mainstream consumers and that’s fine because mainstream is not IWC’s market. Fortunately for the rest of us, however, there is now a very viable alternative.

Enter Tourby Watches
Recently during my daily trawl of the internet I came across a boutique German watch maker by the name of Tourby Watches. Depending on how much of a watch enthusiast you are you might be aware that German made watches are right up there in the same esteem as Swiss Made watches in terms of their precision and craftmanship, think A. Lange & Söhne or Sinn. Whilst Tourby may not be as well know as these brands, they do produce high-quality timepieces for exceptionally good prices.

The Big Pilot
The picture above shows IWC’s Big Pilot watch on the left and Tourby Watches Big Pilot on the right. Although there are certainly some design differences, the biggest difference is the price. As I previously mentioned the IWC Big Pilot sells from US$10,000 upwards whereas the Tourby model can be had for just US$877.30 plus shipping from their eBay store. That’s a pretty significant disparity and I know that your first immediate thought is they must be using inferior materials but I assure you they’re not. The specifications list is actually very impressive:

• 45mm diameter (without the crown)
• Threaded see-through caseback (available with or without engravings)
• Double anti-reflective sapphire crystal
• Polished thick diamond crown
• Swiss made ETA Unitas 6497-1 handwind movement featuring 17 jewels, 18.000 A/h, 9 cotes de geneve stripes, polished winding wheels, polished pallet bridge, Glycudur Balance, Nivarox Spring and Incabloc anti-shock proof
• Pilots leather strap (with many different options available)
• A big maple wood display box
• 2 years warranty 
• Satin finished case

There’s no doubt that there are a lot of pretenders out there in the luxury watch world but I don’t think Tourby Watches is one of them. They make very good looking watches using high-quality materials and exceptional craftmanship. Although the company only sells bespoke pieces, i.e. made to order, through their website you can buy a number of watches through their eBay store. Alternatively, you can design the watch of your dreams and have it made to order.

A small bit of photos that's in Tourbywatches.com

Photo by Customers