General consensus on IWC?

[HenPecked]

Please tell me my all time grail:



Is a decent movement and a good watch? Just look at it! Amazingly beautiful.

[dommorton]

My Portugieser Auto 7 Day has an in house movement.

I was drawn to this not for the 'in house' kudos as such. More that it meant it was their watch through and through and with that I get a stunning movement with almost full width display back, 7 day power reserve and date function over the Chrono. Plus the addition of wear reducing ceramic parts and enhanced accuracy drew me to the later 5007 series watch.

Though frighteningly expensive for me, I felt this watch represented better value as a sum of its parts than the less expensive but also attractive Chrono does.

I like the IWC brand for their incredibly high attention to detail, as well as the historic connection to nautical instrumentation which shows in the design of the big faced Portuguese/Portugieser range. Also though striking in design they aren't as well known a watch brand as some so leave a few people guessing which suits me.

[fordy964]

I'm not convinced IWC are overpricing their in-house, complicated and PM watches necessarily. That kind of stuff is telephone number price tags anyway. It's just that the pricing of ETA watches is eye watering sometimes compared to their competitors. They did reduce prices on the Mark XVII to XVIII by a few hundred quid though.

The Mark XV Spitfire I had was a really nice watch. Nice size, ETA 2893-A2 which wound like butter, really accurate and well finished movement and just a really well built and executed watch but it was no better than an SMP (same movement) or a Tudor Ranger (modded 2824). I looked at the more recent Marks and I just cannot justify them over the Ranger at all for that style of watch. The Mark XVIII starts at £3.5K on leather and the Ranger £1.9K

However, I am seeing the Steel Portofino on leather at grey dealers in Asia under £2.3K now (UK list is about £3.6K) and thats fair value for a beautifully finished watch from this brand with an modded ETA engine. Similarly the Portofino Chronograph in steel goes for under £3K versus a £4.5K list which again isn't bad at all. Mark XVIII's in white or black also seem to be running almost a £1K discount over this part of the world which wouldn't be that far off a similar Tudor. You won't see that kind of discount on a Portuguese though!

Having said all that, I wouldn't kick a Mark XVIII Petit Prince out of bed!


pic from ablogtowatch

[fordy964]

Just an interesting comparison here on simple 3-hand Pilot/Tool watches sporting an ETA or Sellita that I own/owned

IWC Mark XV Spitfire - IWC specified ETA2892-A2 - I sold this one a few months ago for 1.4K


Tudor Ranger - ETA 2824 modded by Tudor new £1.9K, used £1.3K


Sinn 556i - ETA 2824 or Sellita SW200 depending on age £1K new and about £600ish used


Muhle Glasshute Terrasport II - Sellita SW200 modified by Muhle - similar pricing to the Sinn usually although I paid only about £600 for this special edition one on a Lufthansa flight late last year


versus the new Mark XVIII...

pic from ablogtowatch

[gc52]

[QUOTE=fordy964;4312374]Just an interesting comparison here on simple 3-hand Pilot/Tool watches sporting an ETA or Sellita that I own/owned

IWC Mark XV Spitfire - IWC specified ETA2892-A2 - I sold this one a few months ago for 1.4K


Genuine question, does IWC make two mark XV Spitfires ? Mine looks like this:



Mine also has a heavily modified top grade 2892-A2 movement.

This is my current daily wearer. The advantage of the ETA-based movement being that service costs are not crippling so I am happy to give it plenty of use.

[fordy964]

[QUOTE=gc52;4312396]

Just an interesting comparison here on simple 3-hand Pilot/Tool watches sporting an ETA or Sellita that I own/owned

IWC Mark XV Spitfire - IWC specified ETA2892-A2 - I sold this one a few months ago for 1.4K


Genuine question, does IWC make two mark XV Spitfires ? Mine looks like this:



Mine also has a heavily modified top grade 2892-A2 movement.

This is my current daily wearer. The advantage of the ETA-based movement being that service costs are not crippling so I am happy to give it plenty of use.

Yours is a quite rare limited edition Spitfire as far as I know. The one I had was referred to as a Spitfire also (no idea why) but is much more common.

[gc52]

All is clear ! Thanks for the clarification fordy. OP, sorry for the diversion off-topic.


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[Watchaddict]

Love my Aquatimer

Very nice watch indeed.

[crazyp]

IWC is a weird one - in general I really like a lot of their stuff and then a lot is just absolute naff. My brother has a 3717 and I really like that. Along with the Big Pilot which really is an excellent watch. I have a slight unusual IWC Ingenieur as below - quality is outstanding and I think IWC does titanium very well. It does have the weird AMG association, but thankfully it is only on the backside and I don't notice the association at all.

[Itsguy]

Today I saw the new style Ingenieur Chrono for the first time. The pictures looked worrying but nothing could have prepared me for the full horror of the real thing. It's good that they've kept the width within reason, but it's just so thick! Compared to the pleasantly thin outgoing 40mm Genta styled model it looks about twice the height. Basically it has the proportions of a golf ball. What were they thinking?

[zelig]

As an engineer by training - I have been drawn to the Ingenieur for quite some time.
Finally managed to get this one recently (lightly used, but mint & way below new price)



I know this particular model is not to everyone's taste, but I have to say I'm pretty happy with my Ingenieur.
( & as crazyp says above - the only reference to the AMG connection is on the case back )

z

[cygnus]

I've loved the look of IWC watches for a very long time. Originally I wanted the Portuguese Chrono, but having found out it had an off the shelf movement I lost a bit of interest given the price. Then I tried on a Portugieser Automatic 7 Day and no matter how much I fought it I just had to have it.

Really delighted as it's an absolutely stunning thing to behold. The level of detail is superb and the in house 7 day reserve movement so pretty I want to wear it upside-down!

Here's my very recently aquired IW500705. I'm no photographer, but damn just look at it.

Lovely watch I have the limited edition laureus 7 day from 2010 with blue dial

[MrSmith]

I own a spitfire UTC bought of SC, what attracts me to IWC is the interesting history and the fact that unlike a lot of manufacturers I like a significant proportion of their range which is not something I can say about any other brand.
Yes my watch is a modified ETA with an IWC designed UTC (GMT) module but that doesn't bother me (as mentioned servicing can be done a bit cheaper)
I'm a fan of Habring too as he designed a few interesting movements for IWC like the rattrapante chrono.
I like the uniqueness of some of their designs like the Portuguese and what they did with some of the pilots which essentially wasn't playing safe and turning out the same stuff every year.

[crazyp]

Succumbed and paid the iwc tax for the ingenieur strap. Had a wee cry but looks so much better than the bracelet. Unfortunately straps very hard to find so have to go official.



Quite surprised that the chaps in the IWC boutique (Amsterdam) were fans of the model, going as far as saying they preferred it over current ingenieurs.

If I bought another IWC, I'd go with similar to MrSmith above witb a doppel chronograph. Also agree one thing you cannot accuse iwc of is playing it safe recently.

[Evangelos]

my Ingenieur 3228, the watch that made me start checking the IWCs at the watch boutiques.

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[dobbsie]

I'm not sure if there is a definitive answer to this.
If we put aside purity, history and all that other guff I don't really care about, is there anything inherently inferior about an ETA movement in a mechanical sense than an in-house movement?
If you want a nice watch, reliable, perhaps a decent power reserve then is there any reason to attach HUGE value to an in-house?
Does empirical data exist on this?

[matt666]

Don't know about in house movements and all that, but I love the look of the pilot's chrono petit prince

[JeppeRober]

Tried this on yesterday, belongs to a friend of mine. Gorgeous watch and a perfect size.

[Yorkshiremadmick]

Don't know about in house movements and all that, but I love the look of the pilot's chrono petit prince

Loving this !!!
EnJoY with good health



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