Fellow IWC enthusiasts, firstly allow me to apologize for the typo in the title above. It's meant to read;
A Timepiece that NO ONE thought to be an IWC - Timeless Beauty
After I posted the post around the Gubelin entitled
When something is not what it seems.....but a whole lot more!
( www.iwc.com/forum/en/discussion/72903/?page=1#post_570453 )
I decided that this one here regarding the IWC Turler, needs to be reposted - especially as my good friend Tilo had not seen it.
Enjoy the read, or the re-read if you have seen it before.
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From time to time watches are put up for sale on the internet, where even if the acronym of IWC is used in the descriptor, the watch does not attract the interest of potential buyers.
This is often the case, when things do "not quiet look quite right" and buyers are concerned that they are buying fakes, marriages or often simply non IWC watches where someone put an IWC logo on the dial to try and sell it.
This was also the case with this very odd looking pocket watch, which was advertised as being an IWC.
This is how it was depicted on the for sale advertisement.
Now, we all know what IWC Pocket watches are meant to look like - and it's NOT LIKE THIS.
Everything seemed wrong here....
- The case and overall design was far to modern in appearance - almost art-deco style.
- It had a central seconds hand - something typically only reserved and realised by IWC on a very limited number of highly accurate purpose build military timepieces like Deck and Pilot Watches
- Yet, the case was both too decorative and too small IMHO, to be a military time piece
- At what seemed to be around +/- 40mm outside diameter, with a dial size of around 30mm it seemed more like a marriage/conversion of a wrist watch movement, into a pocket watch.
However, this piece intrigued me.
The movement seemed to be genuine IWC but from the serial number that was visible on the original post, did not check out
The caseback was clearly marked :
- STAYBRITE STEEL - and IWC had used this trademark stamping on some of it's watches.
- with the IWC Probus Scafusia logo
We had seen IWC watches bearing the Swiss jeweler Türler logo before - but this dial which was in a strange golden color, bore above the Türler logo, the older (pre 1940's) IWC logo
I decided to secure the watch - having convinced myself, that this was a rare and genuine IWC find. No sooner than I bought it, and shared some photos with fellow collectors. They were all pretty much aligned in their thinking here - that it was a "marriage of sorts" and/or a complete fake.
Thanks to a fellow IWC collector, I arranged for the watch to be collected personally (after I had paid). The "arrangements" the seller made to hand over the watch (on a street corner in a very busy city) - also raised some doubts here.
On receipt of the watch a few weeks later - I rushed it over to my watchmaker and it from our observations it became clear that the case was of a very high manufacture quality - this was not something knocked together to sell a small wrist watch. The movement was most definitely genuine IWC and the serial number I had thought it to carry, was incorrectly read by me. The serial number on the movement itself as well as the case were clearly legible and I was able to photo document them and send up to Dr. Seyffer curator of the IWC Museum in Schaffhausen.
His research and findings turned out that my gut feeling had been correct. This is a quote "unique and rare" timepiece, sold in July of 1941 by IWC to Türler. The watch was produced as a Lepiné Pocket watch and further check of the records show that the Case is a “Mod. No 7” and was designed for a Cal. 61.
The movement a 10 ligne designated C.61 S.C. was manufactured by IWC during the period 1938 to 1942 and in total only 7,800 were produced. It is a beauty to behold.
I have had it fully restored, including having laser filled that ugly notch that someone had filed into the case back, to allow for easier opening. Today it makes a proud statement within my collection.
