Help identifying inherited watch.

Hello All,

I inherited this watch recently and have struggled to find more information on
this watch on when it was made. All I know is that this is not modified and
came as is. Any help would be appreciated.

Best,

Hi ASHEUSH3

whow, what a heirloom! The watch in your picture is from the Da Vinci family.
I found some of its siblings in the 1979 - 1980 catalog. Most probably it is a
Ref. 9308, where yours have a lot more diamonds on the dail and the bracelet.
I assume that the watch was extremely expensive when bought in the late 70tes.

The Ref 9308 comes with the manual wound ultra flat caliber 185. I added
pictures from the IWC dealers book of 1980 which i took from cellars page.

best regards

Cromagnonman

This is a very rare variant of the ladies Da Vinci model from the1970's.

So the watch is about 50 years old and most of the models were launched at the
Basel watch fair of 1970. Many variants are depicted in the 1970 catalogue in
white or yellow gold or platin. Bling bling was the fashion for ladies

With and without diamonds on the bezel and bracelet, quartz or mechanical
movement.

This variant is not in that catalogue.

Regards,

Adrian,

(alwaysiwc).

Thank you Cromagnonman!

This is very valuable information.

Im not sure if this is a ladies watch but it was passed onto me by my father
in his collection.

I have no idea how valuable this is currently?

You are right this is manual winding!!

Best,

Thank you Adrian! You are right about the reference and movement.

My father collected many watches from this era. No idea how much this would be
worth now.

If it's a ladies watch that's interesting, because it seems to bling for men.
I've worn it a couple times and have got a few heads turned.

Thanks again for your help.

Best,

Hi Asheush3,

the watch is 36mm in diameter, that is more a gents size watch than made for
ladies.

We don't discuss values in this forum, but at the bare minimum taking the gold
price and the diamonds alone would be a substancial amount.

I think the market for watches like this is quite difficult.

Anyhow, it is a very special family heirloom.

br Cromagnonman

Amazing piece - I love the detail in the gold.

These kind of precious fancy watches, loaded with diamonds were very popular
in the Middle East countries during the 1970ies.

There is a famous story about the sales director of IWC, Hannes Pantli that he
still tells to collectors visiting the yearly collectors meeting in
Schaffhausen.

He used to travel with a suitcase full of bling-bling IWC watches to Oman and
neighbour countries where he sold them directly to the sheiks. One of them
gave mr. Pantli a present which he had to collect in the harbour of Rotterdam
: a brand new snow white Porsche sports car with red leather seats.

Those were the days!

Adrian,

(alwaysiwc).

Thank you all.

I very much appreciate all your insights and this is incredibly helpful. Great
community you have here.

My father once mentioned how he used to travel to Middle East a lot back in
the day and it's possible he got this watch from a Shiekh there. I am glad to
have this in my collection.

Best,