This has been a very interesting thread so far- thanks Tonny for the
initiation.
The Cal. 71 "Fishtail" is considered by many to be amongst the most beautiful
movements ever produced. According to the IWC "Date Your IWC" App, 300 of
these calibres were produced. The Ministry of Defense had them cased into
Deck watches, and the number on the dial also matched the movement number as
well as the case number.
A number of years ago, another august collector from this Forum told me of a
dealer in Germany who had several of these watches, all NOS, but he would not
sell them, saying they were his 'retirement'. This collector, another Forum
member, and myself met up one afternoon, and discussed how we could pry away
some of these prize watches from the dealer's 'retirement'. With great
effort, we opened our wallets enough, and soon had three incredible, and truly
NOS pieces of IWC history.