1886, still in the early years of IWC, someone got the idea to make a special
pocketwatch.
In fact, they made two of this watch ; a special case, a cabriolet : a watch
that can transform from an open face to a hunter style pocket watch. A case in
18 Kt gold, an enamel dial and a 24h dial and movement completed the package.
One piece was sold to F.Sartori,Palermo,1886 for 680 Swiss Francs.The movement
is a so called Elgin II also mentioned as cal.59.
The second one remains somewhere, waiting to be found by a collector of fine
watches.
Here is a pciture from an old Watch International from 1992.
So 3 watches in one, with a special movement that takes 24 hours to the hour
hand to make a complete turn.
Here is an example of the 3 watches that made it to one. The silver case is
also a 24h movement. Not that many were made, I believe these were only 2
years in production.
In the late 1970's , early eighties, IWC made a limited edition, limited to
max 250 pieces, not sure how many were made, I know of 13 , I guess not all
250 were made.
It was again a watch, convertible from an open face to a hunter, and it got a
name, the Varion, ref 5410, winding and setting are done with a small key of
18 kt. yellow gold with an onyx insert. And as with la Magique, the dial here
is also enamel.
Very few were made, but still I found two types of hands used.
You see here the 1981 catalogue with the Varion with different hands.
Any others here on the forum with a Varion in the collection ?
