I comes to my mind when I have had a look to my Ings in anticipation of the SIHH.
It is a kind of music I like, the brand I like, the models I like.
I conceived it as an outlook.
After a brief visit on Thursday, 24th, it seems to me to be more a farewell resp. reminiscence of a great composer, an iconic IWC feature and watch design.
Kind regards
Poetic tribute.
Love it!
Ciao Hajo! :)
That's a collection - Congratulations!
Give them a lot of wrist time.
/Anders
+1!!!
nicely done, and good to have caught you for a few moments in Geneva Hajo :)
Love it!!!
Nice work and stunning Ingenieurs.
As always says that old is gold. I love these watches. One of these watches is with my father. Its so old one for me.
Lovely watches, we have the same tastes, I have 3 of those 5 plus a Vintage Collection Inge in 18k Rose Gold
Iconic, beautiful and poetic!
Beautiful. Nothing compares to these older models. True pre Richmont IWC
Hajo, made perfect! You know, my pieces add yours very well. I have 666AD with black dial, 500.000 A/m with black dial as well and Certified chronometer in gold. Hope to make common photo of our collections once))
A piece of my mind...
As you did Hajo, I visited SIHH and saw the new collection of Ingenieurs.
Having a comparable collection of "vintage" Ingenieurs as you posess, I could not hide a feeling of nostalgy and the tender love for the good stuff from the good old days.
Although the DNA of the old Ingenieurs has been transfered to the new Ingenieur line, a direct comparison between them shows, at first sight, little simularity and my guess is that you and I would not place any of the new Ingenieurs high on the priority list.
This fact made me thinking and I believe that these mixed feelings have to do with our age and a changing taste and market.
Remember, that the vintage Ingenieurs were expensive, had revolutionary developments, were equipped with a protecting case against magnetism, had the best Swiss automatic winding system (Pellaton) and were shock and water proof to an extensive degree. These icon watches could then be afforded by the happy few only. How few of the happy few realised how special these watches were?
Now times have changed, but some horological facts ( the most important ones) remained.
IWC used again revolutionary materials such as carbon. They maintained to use a new in-house developed movement equipped with the Pellaton winding system.
The current Ingenieurs are protected (nearly) as good as in the past to magnetism , moist and shocks. And still they are meant for the happy few.
How few of the current potential customers will realise how difficult it is to develop a carbon case? Who will care about what a Pellaton winding system is?
How little has changed, I would say, but how little is enough?
The answer is the outlook of today's watches. These watches have been designed for successful people, I think, not older than 45 years of age. Once we both belonged to these target customers. Now, "some quarter of a century later", we are less dynamic( at least I am). I am not longer visiting pop concerts, I have reduced jogging to one mile only, I would have sold my Ferrari or Aston Martin if I had one and I need more than 5 hours sleep. For vacation I would think of booking a sea cruise in the Carribean rather than a camel ride in North Africa. All of this means ....growing old(er)! And it reflects on my taste for watches.
Imagine, that IWC would have launched this year a series of 34 mm diameter Ingenieurs, almost identical to the vintage watches of half a century ago. Who would buy such watch?
Not the fortunate business man of 40 years old.
But also not you and me, as we would say : nothing compares to the good old days.
We have to accept that the research of the market by IWC continuously, leads to the production of the current lines. And that IWC is successful in this,is proved by their business figures. Furthermore it has been pointed out many times on the Forum : we are a small group, not representing any business interest for a successful manufacture like IWC. And if we are discussing how a collectors watch should look like, we forget about the views and interests of others, some of us become unpolite and insulting.
However, this does not mean that one might not like the historical IWC watches to the utmost, as apparently you and I do. And, honestly,within the company many IWC employees are promoting the IWC history and they are providing any help to rescue, repair, restore any of these fine old watches,which all can be classified as : Probus Scafusia.
It is just an honest piece of my mind....
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).
50 or 30 years ago, ingenieurs were revolutionary watches.
Nowadays Ingenieurs are conservative watches.
After almost 60 years, technology has changed but not radically (still using swiss lever for instance) it's hard to conceive something revolutionary likewise.
An aesthetic change would be possible only if new technology was applied to watches.
I like the new collection, I would also like to see IWC exploiting the upcoming anniversary of the inge with something like a hommage, like Audemars did, for instance.
Take the 1832 (I know, being myself a lucky owner,I'm biased about this watch), wouldn't it be nice to see a perfect reproduction (inside-outside) of this watch for the anniversary? Its design it's simply immortal.
Perfection doesn't suffer of age, nor of fashion changes.
And please, no angles on its case, ref. 1832 has no angles, it's full of soft bends, it represents the natural path its designer followed, after having designed the 5402, the 3700 and the 222; those have angles, 1832 has not!
Silly Friday morning thoughts :)
Roman, thank you our pieces really add very well.
Though we have missed in Geneva, I should schedule a trip to Moscow to make a common photo within the next years. ;-)
Best
Adrian, agree with you.
You have got to the heart of
!
BZ - Well done. :)
Best regards
Roberto, no silly Friday morning thoughts of you.
It is just a romantic expression of your addiction to the 1832. :)
Easy comprehensible. ;)
Ciao & Best! :)
Hajo
Not sure about successful, but I'm under 45. On my wrist as I write this is a beautiful 18k reference 866AD....
Best,
Ian.
Hajo,
You're hurting my eyes.... those Inge's are just... fantastic! I've owned all of these but sold them because other priority... too sad! Glad that they're in a fantastic collection at a great collector..