5002, an instant classic back then

After so many years it is still a star in many collections. Do you think the 5002 is worthy of the title "iconic" now?

Yes for sure!

I do!

Absolutely!

You betcha'.

My slow beat 5002...count the 5 beasts per second...

5002 with a Junker model

The 5002 is still an iconic watch. I still enjoy wearing mine a lot.

Kind regards,

Clemens

And, how you attempt to tell which watch is a slow beat vs not. Long story behind this picture. I'll let you tell it.

Drat! It's true. Once something is posted on the Internet, it will never disappear and come and haunt you at the weirdest moments :-)

Kind regards,

Clemens

Iconic for sure
And LOL - too funny!

The story behind this that Cinq did not reveal is that at an Amsterdam GTG a few years ago, both Cinq and I put our identical 5002 out for a table shot. Mine is a slow beat and his is not. When we started picking up our watches we didn't know which one was which. Neither of us knew our serial numbers. Cinq felt certain he could hear the difference in the beat....not.

After a few minutes of pondering and worrying and others also chipping in, I realized that my watch was set to USA time and his to European. Great geniuses all of us. The answer was right on the dial.

... there must be a reason why the 9 appears again on the new BP ;-)
Best,
-Christian

Haha! Bill, I remember that you told me the story at the CF3-Meeting in Schaffhausen. But I didn´t know that the other BP was Clemens´
Great story.
Best,
-Christian

It's possible that Clemens was comparing Bill's slow beat and my transitional 5002. In any event, the 5002 does deserve to be called iconic. IWC got just about everything right with the 5002, particularly the strap. I was delighted to see the new generation of Big Pilots returning to the design cues of the 5002.

Quite possible you are right, Ralph. Blame that faux pas on my senior memory. In any event here is the proof of what was the secret to telling the two 5002s apart. Mine on USA time, 16:03 hours, and the other on European time 22:03 hours. I assume, if the 22:00 hours watch is yours, you reset it from UK to Continental time, unlike me who was too lazy to reset my watch.

We were all dummies as the listening test clearly was not a winning way to differentiate the two:

Btw, the GTG was in April 2013.

Great story Bill and Cinq, with all the alcohol presented in GTGs it's easy to overlook the answer being on the dial.

A double wristshot for you Bill