IWC Mark XX : One year on ... almost ...

[Montello]

Thought I'd do a review as an update as I have finally sold the watch this replaced one year on ... I bought it on a "one in one out" basis ... and I've waited a year to sell the "one out" just to be sure I was selling the correct one. I still like the watch I sold but I don't want too many expensive watches.

I bought this almost a year ago off this forum from Topcat30093, given the price we made the long journey for a F2F collection; Tony was a true gent and we spent a good amount of time chatting and enjoying a lovely cake his partner had baked. We then stayed in a very nice hotel for the night so the buying experience was top notch, so things started well.

I'd always liked the IWC Mark series, and I have a PRS-48 Navigator (Mark XI) and I guess that was the gateway watch to this Mark XX.

It was also not far past our 20th wedding anniversary so I reasoned with my wife that this would be a great way to mark that anniversary ... she rolled her eyes and told me to buy it ...

Since buying it 11 months ago I have worn it 271 days and its run at +0.6spd; the power reserve is excellent to.

It's a comfortable watch that sits well on my wrist and the legibility of the dial is fantastic, I also like the date complication even though I can only read it with my reading glasses on ...

I wear it on a range of straps, initially the IWC easy change ones that clip on/off which allows for easy quick change but more now on a nato or after market strap.

The bracelet is fantastic and quite honestly makes a Rolex/Tudor oyster bracelet look agricultural/basic. It has micro adjust on the push of the IWC logo on the clasp in 1mm steps and you can change the links with a push button tool. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI3LDtouRZo and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNFikc5knvM

It is now my most worn watch; the increased water resistance to 100m makes it fine for a holiday watch on a nato or rubber.

I also like the fact that no-one ever notices it, it's a relatively modest with a brushed case on a strap. The Mark XX written on the dial reminds me of the occasion I brought it to mark ...

IWC customer service has been excellent when registering the warranty and when I bought another strap, I had a stitch come loose so they just sent me a replacement without requesting the faulty one back, which I repaired.

Going forwards this likely to become my one watch and the Explorer is kept for occasions or when I fancy a change. My other watches are family watches that I keep for nostalgic reasons and the PRS-48 is the beater ...

Here are a range of photos of the different straps.







Nato from Bark & Jack


Changed to an IWC 20mm buckle on the Bark & Jack Nato.









Strap from Colareb

[Tuna1138]

Great update/review, the Mark XX is certainly a great watch and it seems you have possibly found 'the one' especially as you can relate to your anniversary.

I too have always liked the 'Mark' series and also picked up my first this year in April via the forum, The green dial XX
It was a shift from the usual dive style watches my collection mainly consisted of and its now one of the ones I like the most and I've since added another couple of Pilot style watches
As much as I like the Green dial, I think I'd wear it more if it was the Blue/black or White dial version, I may possibly a change in the future.

I have to agree the bracelet is a work of art and the micro adjust is excellent, the EasX-Change system is spot on, your Black dial suits them all nicely
having tried a few straps myself as I do like to mix it up, I found the Bracelet suits the Green perfectly so that's all I have now.

For me IWC nailed this one certainly at it's price point, arguably the Date window placement could be slightly better but not an issue for me.

[Montello]

The green dial one is very nice; I tried both blue and green before opting for black, I'd say both are more impressive than the black but the black less noticeable so I guess I went for the boring option or as I prefer to say understated ...

I saw the white dialled one in a shop recently and I liked that too ...

[Topcat30093]

Rick, its great to see that you are enjoying the XXX and making the most of what is a real tool watch.
Very practical with all the strap options.

[Montello]

Rick, its great to see that you are enjoying the XXX and making the most of what is a real tool watch.
Very practical with all the strap options.

Aye, thanks Tony.

One thing I have started to do though is not use the EasX-Change system leather and rubber staps as I find they have a slight hard spot where the clip is bonded into the end of the strap. I prefer using a standard strap.

The EasX-Change system makes fitting the bracelet very easy though.

[scooby]

Personaly i find the easy change straps very easy to use and wear
I have a 41 chrono with this system and have fitted the same spring easy change spring bars to my pilot 40mm heritage titanium and enjoy the flexibility of changing fro rubber strap to leather strap to single pass natos


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[TonyAFC8]

A green mark xx is on my list for the not to distant future, beautiful watches


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[Montello]

Personaly i find the easy change straps very easy to use and wear
I have a 41 chrono with this system and have fitted the same spring easy change spring bars to my pilot 40mm heritage titanium and enjoy the flexibility of changing fro rubber strap to leather strap to single pass natos


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It’s a great system I think it’s just a function of my wrist shape and size that means I notice the hard spot on the straps. NATO and standard straps feel better and the watch head sits more comfortably. Annoying as I’d prefer to use the EasX-change straps.

[Montello]

This is what I mean when I mention the “hard spot” on the IWC strap.

I didn’t really notice it until I started wearing the watch on a nato and noticed it felt better.

Then tried a standard strap and found the same.

I suspect on a larger wrist you wouldn’t notice anything.