The Short Answer
IWC just announced the Big Pilot's Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet "140 Years Mercedes-Benz," a 42mm steel limited edition of 140 pieces built to mark Mercedes-Benz's 140th anniversary. It runs the in-house Calibre 82665, and every function on the perpetual calendar (date, month, four-digit year, and moonphase) adjusts forward and backward using only the crown. No correctors, no pushers, no toothpick through a caseback hole. It costs EUR 41,300, ships on a black rubber strap with IWC's EasX-CHANGE quick-release system, and was announced August 13, 2026.
This is not IWC's first Mercedes-Benz watch. The two brands have run a partnership since 2004, expanded in 2013 when IWC became Official Engineering Partner of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula 1 team. This edition celebrates the car company's anniversary, not a new relationship.
Day at 9, moonphase at 12, date at 3, month at 6, and a four-digit year window tucked between 7 and 8. Busy, but organized.
The watch photos in this article were generated with AI image tools, conditioned on real reference photography of the IWC Big Pilot's Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet Mercedes-Benz edition so the case shape, dial layout, and construction details are accurate to the real watch.
What the ProSet Mercedes-Benz Edition Actually Is
IWC's ProSet lineup launched at Watches and Wonders 2026 as the brand's answer to a real complaint collectors have made about perpetual calendars for decades: correcting one after it stops, or after a mistaken adjustment, usually means finding a watchmaker with the right corrector tool. ProSet removes that problem entirely. Every display on the dial, including the four-digit year, sets through the crown alone, and it moves in both directions. Get the month one click too far. Just wind it back.
The Mercedes-Benz edition sits at the top of a small ProSet family that includes a base steel reference (IW329601), a pink gold version (IW329602), and a ceramic case (IW339601). This particular watch, reference IW329603, is the one built specifically around the automaker's anniversary, and it is capped at 140 pieces, one for each year of Mercedes-Benz history.
The Calibre 82665: An In-House Movement Doing a Lot of Work
Underneath the dial sits the Calibre 82665, IWC's in-house automatic movement built from 280 components. It runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour (4Hz), holds 34 jewels, and stores a 60-hour power reserve. Winding comes from IWC's Pellaton system, a bidirectional pawl-winding mechanism the brand has used and refined since the 1950s, which means the rotor charges the mainspring on both the clockwise and counterclockwise swing rather than just one.
IWC paired that winding system with a silicon hairspring and a LIGA-manufactured nickel-phosphorus escapement, both of which resist magnetism far better than a traditional steel escapement. The moonphase display, meanwhile, is accurate enough to drift by only one day every 1,040 years, which is the kind of spec nobody actually needs and everybody in this hobby wants anyway.
A moonphase this accurate will outlast the watch, the owner, and several generations after them.
Setting It Through the Crown, Step by Step
Because there are no correctors, every adjustment routes through the same crown position and the same rotation. Pull the crown to the setting position, and turning it advances the date, month, four-digit year, and moonphase together in their correct calendar relationship, so you are never fighting the mechanism to get February 29th to line up correctly in a leap year. IWC also built in several patents covering the mechanism, protecting what is a genuinely different way of solving an old problem rather than a cosmetic tweak to an existing corrector system.
The Dial, the Caseback, and the Mercedes-Benz Story
The dial itself is a glossy black lacquer, a finish that photographs almost like wet paint under the right light. Applied solid gold hour markers and gold-plated hands sit against it, and the layout puts the day of the week at 9 o'clock, the moonphase at 12, the date at 3, the month at 6, and the four-digit year in a small window between 7 and 8 o'clock. It is a dense dial by design. A perpetual calendar with this many displays either commits to that density or hides functions the owner paid for, and IWC committed.
Flip the watch over and the Mercedes-Benz connection becomes explicit. The caseback carries an engraved medallion combining a laurel wreath with the three-pointed star, surrounded by text marking the edition and its limited numbering out of 140 pieces.
Every piece is individually numbered out of 140, tying the run directly to Mercedes-Benz's anniversary year count.
The case measures 42mm across and roughly 14 to 14.3mm thick, which is substantial but in line with what a Big Pilot case has always been. Water resistance sits at 100 meters, plenty for daily wear and entirely reasonable for a dress-adjacent complication watch that was never meant to go near a dive computer.
The single crown does everything. No hidden correctors along the caseband to fumble with.
Price, Strap, and Where It Sits in the Lineup
IWC priced the Big Pilot's Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet 140 Years Mercedes-Benz at EUR 41,300. IWC's US site lists a separate figure of $41,200 before tax for the American market, which is not a direct currency conversion of the European price and should be treated as its own number rather than assumed to track the euro figure exactly.
The strap is black rubber, fitted with IWC's EasX-CHANGE quick-release system, so an owner can swap it for another strap in the ProSet family without tools. On the wrist, the size and weight read closer to a serious tool watch than a delicate dress complication, which tracks given the Big Pilot case this reference is built on.
A 42mm case with this much going on the dial wears like a genuine daily-driver complication, not a shelf piece.
For collectors comparing it against the rest of the ProSet family, the base steel and ceramic references sit lower in price, and the pink gold version sits above it. Where exactly this Mercedes-Benz edition lands against those siblings once currency and market premiums settle is still shaking out, since it is brand new to the market as of this writing.
FAQ
What makes the IWC ProSet perpetual calendar different from a standard perpetual calendar?
Every display, including date, month, four-digit year, and moonphase, adjusts entirely through the crown, in both directions. Standard perpetual calendars usually need separate correctors, often set with a stylus through small holes in the caseband.
How many pieces of the Mercedes-Benz edition were made?
IWC limited the Big Pilot's Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet 140 Years Mercedes-Benz to 140 pieces, one for each year since Mercedes-Benz was founded.
What movement powers this watch?
The in-house Calibre 82665, a 280-component automatic movement with Pellaton bidirectional winding, a silicon hairspring, a LIGA nickel-phosphorus escapement, 34 jewels, and a 60-hour power reserve.
How much does the IWC Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar Mercedes-Benz edition cost?
IWC priced it at EUR 41,300. The US site separately lists $41,200 before tax, which is its own market price rather than a direct conversion.
Is this a new partnership between IWC and Mercedes-Benz?
No. IWC and Mercedes-Benz have partnered since 2004, expanding in 2013 when IWC became Official Engineering Partner of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula 1 team. This watch celebrates Mercedes-Benz's 140th anniversary within that existing relationship.
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