Hi All,
I've worn the Ingenieur as a daily watch for a short while. While the build quality is excellent, i find there are 2 issues i have to live with. Is this characteristic with IWC watches?
I was expecting IWC watches would be A+ in all aspect :-)
Why not post some pics of the Inge and specific of yours issues!
The lume on the Ingenieurs is indeed poor, nothing to be done. I just don't understand why IWC doesn't improve this: either there is no lume (most Portugueses, dressy watches, OK) or there is good lume.
The minutes hand and the seconds hand are not linked in a cast-iron way: when setting the time you have to aim at the right position of the minutes hand. Because there is some play in the gear train the best way to do so is this: first you wait until the seconds hand stands on 60, pull the crown. Then you go with the minute hand to a few minutes past the twelve and you go back to the twelve: the gear train is sharp on the dot. You push the crown on the radio signal and hope that the minutes hand doesn't jump. Oh well, this is one of the charms of a mechanical watch. Good luck!
Kind regards,
Paul
Not sure about #2.
For #1... yes, Ingenieur's lume has nothing to brag about. Below is a rather poor lume shot of my AT2000 and Ingenieur. (Yes, there is a bit of lume on the Ingenieur... but sorry, you just can't quite see it):
The watches were... exposed to the same amount of light before I put them underneath my son's bed for this shot.
Not to disagree on lume, but traditionally lume was limited to a few watches like diving watches. The traditional, classic Ingenieurs had mostly no lume. Only a few watches of brands like Patek, Vacheron, Breguet have any lume, and it's not that they're all "dress" watches.
I think there's been changing tastes and consumer needs, and today more lume is considered good.
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First Issue, Michael addressed well.
Second Issue: Try to set the minute hand according to the second hand goes or hacked, for example, when the second hand is around 30 sec, set the minute hand to the middle of the minute interval, needless to say if the second hand is around 60/0, try and come back.
I disagree that either of the conditions you mentioned reflect anything about IWC watches in general.
The minute hand not lining up happens on many watches and is usually an easy adjustment to have made if that is necessary.
IWC has some lines with low or no lume, such as Ingenieurs or Portuguese. But I find their Aquatimers, especially the newer ones, to have superb lume. IWC is certainly capable of providing this level of lume when their design ethic suggests it is desirable.
As MF has pointed out, the desirability of this feature has changed over time.
Thanks to everyone who commented. I tried the method some suggested to my issue (2) and it worked. I guess it is the characteristic of the particular movement.
As for the lume, there's nothing that can be done, so i'll have to live with it.
It is great to hear you that your mentioned second issue is resolved.
As to the lume, personally I've not found the lume on most watches to be all that useful. Most lume used today is "charged" by exposure to light. How long the exposure is, and how bright the light exposed to, will affect both the brightness of the lume and its duration.
If one needs a watch he can reliably and clearly read in the dark, he'd probably be best served with a watch, as available from several makers, with tritium illumination.
Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. A small amount gets sealed in small glass vials coasted on the inside with a phosphorescent substance that glows when excited by the products of the radioactive decay of the tritium. For a watch application, these very small vials can be affixed to the dial and the hands causing them to glow quite brightly in the dark.
I have such a watch for those rare occasions in which being able to tell time in the dark is particularly important to me.
My three best lume watches are the IWC Vintage Collection Pilot's watch, the IWC Saint Exupéry Chrono and the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. All use Superluminova. After a normal day and evening of wearing the watch, either watch has reasonable lume for the night, but charging is helpful of course.
From the start in 2005 there were complaints about the lume of the new Ingenieurs, one of the very few complaints on a very nice and sturdy companion. The slots for the lume on markers and hands were quite narrow. However, that could have been corrected with the introduction of the Ingenieur Mission Earth and the Big Inge in 2009, where at least the slots on the hands are a bit wider, maybe the markers are a bit bigger too: that would have been the opportunity to accommodate to the changing and apparent consumer needs or wishes.
Kind regards,
Paul