Change of Policy - No more Extracts from the Ledger

Thanks for humoring me.
I did a quick search on "regulateur" and you do not appear to be a vintage collector. Your 9 IWCs may be quite recent and probably have all papers and documents, rendering the Certificate unnecessary. But even if you were one of those OCD collectors who needs to have the Certificates, you would have to fork out €2,700. Not exactly cheap, but worth considering.
Now imagine that you have been collecting vintage IWCs for well over 10 years, and already paid a "nominal" fee for the Extract from the Ledger or, in case of the Mark 11, the Certificate of Genuineness, for all your IWCs, some of which actually went Schaffhausen so the Extract or the Certificate could be issued, e.g. Ref 325, Ref 666, Ref 866, Ref 812, Ref 9386, Mark 11.
And now, out fo the blue, and for no apparent reason (to quote Forrest Gump) if you want to have the new and improved Certificate, you will have to send all your 40something watches to Schaffhausen, and pay the new "nominal" fee, which if the €300 price per unit is to be believe, will end up in a grand total in the vicinity of €12,000.
The motto "if it aint broke don't fix it" should have applied. Was it broken?
This is why it matters.

Well, there are many things I would like to have out of the blue, but I can't afford them. Even for only 9 IWCs at the same time, if my intention is not to buy or sell them and as long as I am sure that the watch is genuine I would never come on the idea to ask for such a certificate.

But I think all this discussion is missing the point: As Michael always says, this forum is provided by IWC, having only good intentions, and we are all guests. So I think we should be grateful for the new services instead of critizing them and wishing the old times would return. They won't.

300 euros is a lot, I wonder what information the new certificate contains.

I still think the best way to support a collector is to give brief information about serial numbers via mail (so to help the collector to, f.i. go ahead with the purchase, feeling safe the watch's original). Longines does not release extracts but offers this service for free.

After that, who wants to receive a detailed report of his watch, can ask for a certificate.

Breguet asks for € 500 and the watches with its certificate gain some value for that - to my experience.

Patek offers a further service, providing info about stolen watches, does anybody know if this feature is contemplated in the new IWC service?

It would be great to see the template of the new certificate also.

I think there's nothing wrong with constructive criticism, politely expressed.
Personally, I'm appreciative of the new service, even if logistically burdensome for me, but I think IWC could consider whether some abbreviated, non-authentication service could also be established. Even an e-mail report would be great for my purposes.

Michael, now you have a good excuse to come visit Southern Europe more often! :)

It will be no secret that I am a vintage IWC collector.
I think IWC is making the right move to deliver only Extracts of the Ledger, if the watch is genuine. And genuinesess has to be verified. There is no Swiss manufacturer using its rich history of watch making more than IWC. There is no Swiss manufacturer using its vintage models translating these into their current models. History is everything.
Therefore it is logical that IWC vintage collectors would have the opportunity to "check out" their (supposed) vintage watches. IWC is one of few Swiss Watch Companies that has not destroyed or waisted their watch history : registrating every single watch sold. In fact IWC is probably the company that kept their Archives back to 1885 best of all Swiss watchmakers. This treasured information should be available to the public : IWC collectors.And it may have its price! This information makes a vintage IWC watch more valuable and it provides (nostalgic) data upon when the watch was sold and to whom.
Living in the era of internet and with all the advantages and disadvantages it, is clear to me that the forgery of expensive and historically important IWC watches is increasing. As IWC recognises this problem too, it has to be applauded that the company has decided only to deliver Extracts of the Archives, when a vintage IWC watch has been examined at home : Schaffhausen.
This was already true for several soughted after models but apparantly it is now expendad to all vintage models. I agree with our moderator that fewer and fewer IWC employees do master the knowledge on all possible vintage models. I do not share the opinion of our moderator MF that sending vintage watches to Schaffhausen for verification is so costly for those who live in far foreign countries. First of all, one should use the AD as a key person. If you are a customer, your AD will send the timepiece for free or for a reasonable price. But even if you have to pay for it, An Extract Of the Archives is nearly the same as an extract of your Birth Register : unique and very important to you!
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

Adrian --I respect your opinion, but with respect I would argue that Patek has as rich a history, its current models have historical antecedents as much as IWC, has a more robust vintage market, has had a greater problem with forgeries, and has a totally different approach to its extracts. And Patek vintage collectors appreciate and value their non-authenticated extracts.

Again, with all due respect, I think we should not hint to IWC in their house that the competition is doing better.

I think we should, in a respectfull way.

About the costs. IWC has not given any info yet on what the new extracts cost and what is included in that price. I think it is best to wait for that before we start a lengthy discussion.

I believe it is our obligation to provide an honest and unvarnished appreciation of IWC's performance in a constructive way. Praise when praise is due, and constructive criticism when applicable. I am not a member of the IWC cheerleading team.
Many of us in this forum, may not be the typical IWC customer, but we have demonstrated that we care about IWC and its rich history.

Ladies & Gents,

I am ecstatic - I've ordered my first "new" Certificate of Authenticy for one of my pocket watches. Apparently the Certificate is real nice quality too.

The costs associated with the Certificate are CHF.283 -

IWC please clarify the following:
Will it be necessary to get the new Certificate of Authenticity for watches already send to Schaffhausen, where they were inspected by IWC experts to obtain the old Extract from the Ledger or Certificate of Genuineness?
And, in case these watches are exempted from another trip to Schaffhausen, do we still have to pay the CHF 283.00?
Thanks in advance.

Hi Mark,

Does the price include shipping from your AD to SH?

Hello David Ri****nn. Why not?

Good to see you posting again on the Forum. Why have you changed your online identity?

No reply. I am glad I was not holding my breath. :-)

with all respect I´m very curious, what future

In iwc collectors market It was built a great reputation all watches that had excerpt of our archives

One of my "excerpt of our archives" said this:

---"These indications recorded in our main ledjers are related to the original watch built in our factory, They not be used the endorsement"--

If in future I want to sell one of my iwc watchs from my collection I need send it to schaffausen and spend 300 euros to have a proof that is genuine

With all respect I think with this change of policy they're using psychology to discourage (change) collectors from buying vintage watches and buy new watches only.

Sincerely
best regards