A few months ago, I was chatting with a few IWC buddies via WhatsApp while I
enjoyed a nice glass of whisky. We started talking about the Ingenieur 3227
line and the few limited editions, like the CFI and the salmon-dial version.
Since I love the 3227 line I was very interested and then somebody pointed me
to a Japanese site that had a Ken Noguchi edition for sale. The strong
enabling and a few glasses of whisky made me easy to convince that I needed
this timepiece and in the end it took less than an hour until order it.
With the upcoming BBAMSGTG2019, this would be a nice reveal. GTG's (Get
Togethers) are really popular to show new additions to fellow collectors and
seeing people react in person is much nicer than just a 'like' or a 'thumbs
up' on social media.
There was however one problem. I was looking for another watch for quite a
long time that I wanted to add to my collection. There had been two for sale
on line for a while but when one got sold, I decided I needed to pull the
trigger and buy the remaining one. In the last 4 years or so, there hasn't
been one for sale as far as I know so if this one would disappear, it could
take years for one to reappear.
So, with two watches incoming and an upcoming holiday to Italy, things got a
bit exciting on the delivery front. I was keeping an eye on the 'track and
trace' site and then I noticed something strange on the watch coming from
Japan. After it arrived in the Netherlands, it got marked as 'delivered', then
'not home' and then 'delivered' again. I however, had heard nothing at all. My
Holiday was getting closer and closer and then I found out that the postal
services had delivered the parcel at the local office where I could go pick it
up and pay the import duties. This also was a very interesting experience
since Customs had decided not to honor the price of the watch as specified on
the packing slip but estimate the watch at more than double that price! You
can imagine I was unpleasantly surprised but I had no choice than to pay for
it and apply for a refund.
Luckily, the watch arrived in great shape and it keeps great time and it looks
way better in real life than in pictures.
The second watch is totally different than the Ingenieur. It's from the
Portuguese line. I'm a huge fan of the Portuguese Perpetual with double
moonphase, also known as the IW5021 line. As a matter of fact, I actually
prefer the 5021's over the newer 5032's and 5034's although the latest edition
has some stunning versions!
The special one I was able to acquire is the 'Luis Figo' edition that was
launched in 2008 in a run of just 50 pieces. Despite the fact I'm not a huge
soccer fan, I really like this one and with Luis Figo being a Portuguese, it
makes it special to me too.
Sorry for this long story, huge thumbs up if you have read all of this and
maybe I see you at another GTG?
Kind regards,
Clemens