The IWC Vintage Collection

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SIX PIONEERS IN THE HISTORY OF IWC

In 2008, on the occasion of its 140th birthday, IWC took six iconic models from the company’s long history and updated them as contemporary reinterpretations, equipped with modern, IWC-manufactured hand-wound and automatic movements. Where fidelity to the historic originals was required, they are fitted with hand-wound pocket watch movements based on IWC’s legendary 98 calibre, in production for longer than any other movement. These have been modified to include certain elements from the very earliest Jones movements. The striking dome shape of the front glass on three of the models is likewise reminiscent of the design of the historic originals. Each of the six timepieces is based on the model that inspired one of the company’s current families of watches.

In the mid-1930s, IWC’s Pilot’s Watches ushered in the age of high-performance watches. In the early days of flying, timepieces designed for use in aircraft had to contend with strong vibrations, wildly fluctuating temperatures and magnetic fields. Pilots needed precise, robust wristwatches that would satisfy all these requirements. In 1936, IWC launched its first “IWC Special Pilot’s Watch”. With its black dial and luminescent hands and numerals, the watch drew unmistakably on highly legible navigating instruments and established the cockpit-style design that has become a standard feature of classical pilot’s watches. The rotating bezel with its luminescent arrowhead index helped pilots to set their maximum flying time. Seals made of lead in the stainless-steel case protected the movement, the 83 calibre, against dust.

Vintage Mood 02 - Interior
—The dial's design on the Da Vinci Automatic reflects the spirit of the age; the 15th-century Prague Astronomical Clock

The first Portuguese watch from IWC, manufactured in 1939, is one of watchmaking’s genuine legends. It owes its name and existence to two Portuguese watch importers who approached the company in the late 1930s requesting a wristwatch in a steel case. The watch they had in mind would be as precise as a marine chronometer – a requirement that before then could only have been met by a pocket watch movement. Taking the superb 74-calibre bar movement as a starting point, IWC made a hunter-style wristwatch. The hunter was a natural choice, because its crown – like that of a wristwatch – is located on the right-hand side of the case instead of at the top, as in the case of Lépine open-face pocket watches. As the first pocketwatch style wristwatch, the Portuguese set a precedent for the giant-sized wristwatches that are popular today. And, as the founder of an illustrious IWC watch family, it is one of the more important figures in the company’s history.

In many respects the Ingenieur Automatic, which appeared in 1955, was a quantum leap in watchmaking. The aim was to make a perfectly protected, high-precision watch, wound solely by movements of the wearer’s arm. It was achieved in an exemplary fashion with the Pellaton pawl-winding system patented in the early 1950s. In order to conduct magnetic fields around the outside of the watch, the new automatic movement was combined with the case technology used for the Pilot’s Watch Mark 11 and housed in an additional soft-iron inner case with a soft-iron dial. It meant that professionals like engineers, technicians and doctors, whose work brought them into contact with magnetic fields, could rely on their watches at all times. Today, the Ingenieur watch family is the epitome of tough, functional watches designed to withstand water, impacts, vibrations and temperature changes.

Aquatimer Automatic

—Reference 3231

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Vintage Mood 03 - Interior
—The picturesque port town on the rocky Ligurian coast stands for timeless beauty and cosmopolitan elegance
Da Vinci Automatic

—Reference 5461

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Man’s dream of diving is probably as old as his dream of flying. In the 1960s, a growing fascination with the underwater world spawned an unprecedented number of attempts to explore it systematically. Now it was the job of the watchmaking industry to develop diver’s watches that were water-resistant, robust and, above all, reliable; for correctly timing a dive was key to the health – or even the life – of the diver. In 1967, IWC unveiled the Aquatimer. Water-resistant to 20 bar, the company’s first diver’s watch founded a watch family whose success has continued unabated to this day. One of the critical features from the start was an internal rotating bezel that was set using a second crown situated at “4 o’clock”. The rotating bezel on the current Aquatimer models has undergone further development and is now located outside the case.

The story of the Da Vinci family comprises a technological revolution, a major setback and, more recently, a triumph. In the mid-1960s, IWC and other companies developed a quartz wristwatch movement, the Beta 21 calibre or, as IWC called it, the 2001 calibre. It was used in the very first Da Vinci in 1969. Although quartz revolutionized the world of watchmaking, Swiss companies specialized in the manufacture of complex mechanical watches and could do little to combat the cheap, mass-produced articles flooding the market from the Far East. It was in these circumstances that IWC was drawn increasingly by the fascination of pure mechanics. And the Da Vinci watch generation of 1985 set IWC’s mechanical watches on course for a series of world-shattering triumphs.

Vintage Mood 01 - Interior
—Six iconic models from IWC's long history, updated as contemporary reinterpretations
Portofino Hand-Wound

—Reference 5448

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The unassuming star of the IWC collection to this day: the Portofino, first unveiled in 1984

In the 1970s and early 80s, the market was dominated by complex watches inspired by art and design. Despite this, IWC noted that there was a steady demand for simple, classical models. It resulted in the birth of a watch family that is both timeless and elegant and that has remained the unassuming star of the IWC collection to this day: the Portofino, first unveiled in 1984. The Reference 5251 pocket watch movement, remodelled for use on the wrist, made no attempt to conceal its direct descent from IWC’s Lépine open-face pocket watches.

 

IWC Vintage Collection


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On the contrary: a glass back cover provided a clear view of the extremely slim original 9521-calibre pocket watch movement. The very first Portofino owes another special feature to its open-face ancestry: the moon phase and seconds displays are located at “3” and “9 o’clock”, respectively, because the winding stem and small seconds hand in this type of movement are always in line. The first model, with its yellow gold case and goldstone moon phase display, was produced unchanged in a very small series until the late 1990s.

The IWC Vintage Collection is available in platinum, 18-carat white gold, 18-carat rose gold and stainless steel.

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