Tag Archives: IWC

tomvox1’s Watches for Sale — Vintage 1970s IWC Yacht Club Blue Dial B&P

As October speeds along and we inevitably face those frantic Holiday-filled final few months of the year it’s time to take a quick pause before the action begins and consider a truly beautiful and special vintage timepiece — this mid-1970s IWC Yacht Club with stunning blue dial on original bracelet.

Now the blue dial alone is reason enough to catch the savvy collector’s attention. But then there’s the fact that it also comes with its original box and a raft of matching paperwork that has survived the years along with this stunning watch. These bits of history include the original guarantee and even the sales receipt from Spandau, Germany dated 1976, among other records. That kind of hard-to-find provenance really puts this piece into solid investment grade “collector’s set” territory.

Of course you can’t wear the box and papers no matter how nice those goodies are to have. Where this Yacht Club really shines is on the wrist, its perfectly balanced 36mm “C-shape” case all flowing lines and making the dial really pop. And underneath the hood is a recently serviced caliber 8541B, the ultimate development of IWC’s wonderful in-house automatic calibers at the time.

On land or at sea, this blue Yacht Club is a watch guaranteed to make a fantastically stylish impression — make it yours before the gift giving season heats up and someone else snaps it up!

Check out the complete ad with many more pictures and full description now over at the Chronocentric’s great Chronotrader marketplace. ON HOLD

tomvox1’s Watches for Sale — July selection, Pt. II

July must be the month for beautiful black dialed watches because here comes another one. This time it’s an even more uncommon mid-1960s reference 666-AD Ingeniuer with incredible glossy black dial. Part of the Big 3 of antimagnetic “scientist” watches from the toolwatch Golden Age along with the Rolex Milgauss and Omega Railmaster, the IWC Ingenieur is a legend in its own right and probably the most versatile of the that illustrious a-mag lot. Putting this rare original black dial over the top is the added signature of the legendary Zurich jewelry retailer, Türler. That’s really a rare touch on an already rare model!

With its well proportioned 36.5mm all-steel 3-piece screwed case and beefy safe-like design to accommodate the anti-magnetic Farraday cage, the classic 666 Ingy is both rugged and elegant, a real mid-century masterpiece. Originally water resistant to 10 ATM and resistant to up to 1000 Gauss of magnetic fields, the enemy of a watch’s balance spring, this version of Ingeniuer features the excellent 21-jewel caliber 8531 with date complication under the hood. With its unique Pellaton winding system it’s part of one of the best mass-produced automatic families in horological history.

To put the ice cream on the pie this classic Ingenieur comes on its original Gay Freres beads-of-rice bracelet with IWC-signed “globe” logo clasp, a serious find in its own right. If you’ve ever searched for one of these you know they just don’t come around very often, especially not with a black dial double-signed by Türler and on an original GF bracelet, so this is a great opportunity for the serious collector to own this iconic timepiece from IWC Schaffhausen. Don’t miss it!

Check out the complete ad for this killer Ingenieur now over at the always hopping Omega Forums’ Private Sales section for many more pictures and complete condition report. The chance to own an example as special as this one may not come again! SOLD

tomvox1’s Watches for Sale — March selection, Pt. II

March Madness for great collectible watches continues with this awesome IWC Flieger UTC dual timezone beauty. UTC stands for Universal Time Coordiated (why, its right there in the dial!), the successor to GMT time as the standard for pilots. So it only makes sense that this late 1990s addition to IWCs fabled Flieger line features a mega cool UTC 24-hour readout right there on the dial.

See, you set up the watch so that both the 12-hour hands and 24-hour disc are in sync. Then when you travel this cool timepiece lets you set the hour hand independently either forwards or backwards via the screw down crown. But your hometime stays constant. A pretty darn cool way to design a GMT watch!

Not only that but the beautiful stainless steel case is built like a tank. It’s also sized like a jumbo Mark XI at an ultra-wearable 39mm, perfectly proportioned in my opinion. Plus this early reference 3251 still features its classic black and white “Mark”-style dial with mixed Tritium along with Luminova luminous for that classic aviator toolwatch look. Better yet all this wristwatch engineering and functionality represents terrific value for money in today’s bananas watch world. So strap it on and set course for distant lands. Day or night, this Flieger UTC could be the only travel watch you need in any hemisphere!

Check it out now while its still available over at the always hopping Omega Forums Private Sales section. SOLD

tomvox1’s Watches for Sale — 1990s IWC Aquatimer 2000 GST ref. 3536

The weather may have finally turned truly chilly but that only prompts thoughts of heading to a beach somewhere to enjoy some sun, sand and surf while everyone back at home freezes their you know whats off. And on offer this month is the perfect watch to accompany you on any Caribbean or South Seas getaway you may have planned — a late 1990s IWC Aquatimer 2000 GST ref. 3536.

This example of long discontinued and long admired professional grade dive watch has the more uncommon stainless steel case (most were made in titanium) with matching fantastically designed integrated bracelet. Better yet, this true tool watch from the great Schaffhausen marque comes complete with inner and outer boxes, manuals & IWC guarantee card (in Japanese), bracelet tools and a couple of extra links.

This example of 3536 features a rare mixed-media partially Tritium dial and hands. IWC did a very interesting and peculiar thing on the earlier examples of this model where they used Trit luminous for the “12” marking and for the hands (as well as the bezel pip) but Luminova luminous for the other dial markers. Odd & eccentric but kind of cool and sort of unique to IWC as far as I can tell. This version of Aquatimer dial has a real form follows function look to it and I greatly prefer the all-business, almost military style of this 3536 dial, especially with the Trit elements, to those models in the line that came after it.

Running like a top and ready for action this big steel IWC Aquatimer 2000 GST is ready for any aquatic adventure you’re likely to dream up. And if you find yourself stuck here in wintertime at least you can console yourself with a stylish, tough and rapidly-becoming-vintage classic on your wrist that can stand up to digging your car out of a snow drift and still help you cut a fine figure when you finally make it your office or evening’s engagement.

Check out the full ad with many more pictures and complete condition report right now over at the always hopping Omega Forums’ Private Sales section. SOLD

Watch Collector’s Notebook — IWC’s original Yacht Club, an avant garde answer to the Datejust

One of my favorite vintage brands and one which I also feel is consistently undervalued is the International Watch Company of Schaffhausen, better known as simply IWC. Back in the day, every IWC watch had an in-house movement and their manual wind and automatic calibers were some of the best, most reliable and accurate machines on the market. With their bespoke Pelleton winding system, which was developed by the marque’s famed technical director Albert Pelleton in the early 1950s, IWC offered a solid alternative, if not also an implicit challenge, to Rolex’s longtime dominance of full rotor automatic technology. IWC continued to develop their 85x auto calibers for nearly two decades until they reached what many experts consider the pinnacle with their legendary 8541B movement. And it is the 8541B that you find in IWC’s other implicit challenge to Rolex, the beautifully designed Yacht Club model.

Debuting right at the dawn of the funky 1970s when the Swiss watch industry would go somewhat design mad chasing rapidly changing tastes and fashions, the Yacht Club manages to be at once cutting edge and traditional. Making full use of the sweeping lines of the “C”-shape case, variations of which are also found in contemporaneous Omega Constellations and Heuer’s automatic Carrera, the Yacht Club’s heavy steel case is a perfectly proportioned 36mm X 44mm. That’s much bigger than the rather medium-sized C-shape Connie and obviously not as big as Heuer’s macho racing chronograph, so where it ends up is exactly in the same size bracket as Rolex’s evergreen, the Datejust. And that’s really the best analog and probably the exact watch IWC were gunning for. For if the Datejust was the icon of a never-changing design standard, the Yacht Club aimed to offer the same sort of elegance but with a bit of an avant garde twist for the modern man.

Hence the lugs sweep inward toward the bracelet rather than projecting out in a relatively straight line like the DJ, giving the dial extra prominence and pop. And what beautiful dials the Yacht Clubs had, from the classic beauty of starburst silver to moody, manly gray to my personal favorite, an astonishing blue that changes in hue ever so subtly depending on the angle at which its viewed. Note also the classy way the date discs are not one-size-fits-all for the colored dials but rather reverse printed with white numerals on the matching color background of the dial. Nice touch! The hands are luminous with black inlay and very easy to read and there is something that really appeals about the applied IWC logo of this period. I like it better than the earlier printed full script “International Watch Co.” alone and much more than the later boring printed block lettering, which still adorns their dials today.

The Yacht Club was also a departure for IWC in that prior to its introduction they produced only a few special models with a screw back case design, such as the anti-magnetic Ingenieur and the diver-centric Aquatimer. Continue reading →

tomvox1’s Watches for Sale — September selection

Speaking of Grails: As September winds down to a close it’s my great pleasure to offer on behalf of a friend a very rare and iconic vintage Porsche Design by IWC Ocean 2000. This cult tool watch classic is crafted in all-titanium with a matching super comfortable and innovative bracelet and is the civilian version of a very famous German Navy-issued Bund military watch. At 43mm in diameter it’s the big size model and dates from the mid-1990s. Best of all, it’s in fantastic condition and not only has it been well maintained during its lifetime with the paperwork to prove it but the watch also comes with essentially every item that this IWC Porsche Design Ocean 2000 came with when it was bought new.

This is a rare opportunity to own a complete example of this avant-garde IWC diver with exceptional provenance. And while it’s certainly not inexpensive it is a quality collectible that’s well worth ponying up for if it tickles your fancy, as well a watch that has seen a pronounced increase in value the last few years. As the old saying goes: they’re not making any more of them!

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