Pilot Valentino Rossi spotted wearing a IWC

During an official meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome, nine-time world motorcycle racing champion Valentino Rossi was photographed wearing an IWC Big Pilot's Watch Perpetual Calendar Top Gun in Ceratanium, reference IW503604. The formal diplomatic setting made the uncompromisingly military-aesthetic piece all the more conspicuous on Rossi's wrist.

The IW503604 is built around IWC's in-house Calibre 52610, a self-winding movement with a perpetual calendar mechanism that automatically accounts for months of different lengths, including leap years, until the year 2100. It runs at 21,600 vph and delivers a 168-hour — seven-day — power reserve, a signature feature of IWC's Big Pilot line since its relaunch in the 2000s. The case measures 46.2mm and, crucially, marks the first time IWC produced an entire case and bracelet system from Ceratanium. The material is manufactured by subjecting a titanium base to a proprietary surface transformation process that bonds ceramic compounds throughout, resulting in a component that is as lightweight as titanium yet achieves ceramic-level scratch resistance — without the brittleness that typically accompanies ceramic alone.

Within the Top Gun collection, the IW503604 sits at the top of the hierarchy. The line, introduced in 2007 as a tribute to the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School, has always leaned on matte black aesthetics and technical materials. Ceratanium elevated the flagship perpetual calendar variant beyond the earlier ceramic and titanium references that preceded it, and collectors recognized the genuine material innovation rather than treating it as a cosmetic upgrade.

Rossi, known for his exacting attention to technical detail — a prerequisite for competing at the highest level of MotoGP for over two decades — gravitates naturally toward watches that emphasize engineering substance over decoration. The Top Gun's pilot instrument ethos and the Ceratanium case's motorsport-adjacent obsession with weight and durability align credibly with his profile.

At retail, the IW503604 is listed at approximately $36,500 USD. On the grey market it has traded at or modestly above retail given its status as the first all-Ceratanium IWC reference, making it one of the more stable pieces in the current secondary market for IWC sport complications.