Since I bought my 1st IWC (Portuguese Automatic 7-Days) 10 years ago, I've been searching for information on component count of its Cal.51011 movement, but to no avail.
My recent acquisition of a Ref:5026 with Cal.51614 started my curiosity again! Does anyone knows the answers, or knows why IWC only reveals jewel count but not component count of its calibers?
Thanks in advance.
I guess jewel count gives some indication of the quality of the movement, although this may always have been some marketing instrument, like remarks about water resistance and shock absorbtion. One may assume correctly that the high quality, expensive movements get as much jewels as considered necessary for longevity, that cost cutting is not the dominant argument here.
Component count doesn't say anything about the quality of the movement, it just isn't true that the more parts there are the better the movement is. I can only assume that mentioning the number of parts isn't considered useful by IWC.
There are some numbers that I would consider useful to mention, that now are not mentioned: the weight of the watch (a heavy watch may put people off) and the lug size and width at the buckle side, to accomodate ordering straps. But here I think that protecting the own business is the reason those numbers are not freely available.
Kind regards,
Paul
Thanks for your response, Paul. I agree with you totally with jewel count.
As an engineer myself, I do know that it is exponentially more difficult to produce a complex mechanism with lesser components, compared to using more components to achieve the same functionality. Also, reliability is an inverse function to part count; lesser parts, better reliability. So in fact, a mechanism is always superior if it is built with lesser components to perform the same function.
But I guess this (lesser components) may not be perceived well from a marketing stand point, which is probably one of the reason why IWC never discloses the information.
Having said that, there are literature about Kurt Klaus's perpetual calendar, showing day/date/month/year/decade/century/moon-phase is achieved with just 90 components added to the base movement! His legendary design is the main reason why I desired the 5026 so much :)
Thanks a lot for the information about the reliability in relation to the number of parts: it really makes sense, but I didn't consider it until now. Indeed difficult for marketing: less is more!
Kind regards,
Paul
Hey Paul, after much reading and research, I finally gotten some clues on part count of the 51000-Caliber!
On page 60 of 2012/2013 IWC catalogue, it was stated that Cal.51111 has a total of 311 parts. In another article, where IWC pays tribute to Kurt Klaus, it was mentioned that no more than 90 parts were added to the base movement, in the creation of the perpetual calendar.
Though built on Cal.51011 instead of Cal.51111, Cal.51614 should contain 401 parts plus minus.
My curiosity is satisfied, finally :)
References:
Kurt Klaus, an old hand at IWC