• Apprentice
    16 Jun 2020, 6:55 p.m.

    Hello,

    I've recently bought this watch.

    It is an IWC with a cal.89 from the 50s, platinum case.

    I would like to have your insights about it.

    I paid it roughly a 1000 euros.

    I've looked at this reference but I do not see the same style of writing, it
    is rather a mix of some of them. I think it is genuine though because of the
    sharpness of it.

    The dial looks genuine to me, the dimples are homogenously placed, without any
    signs of repainting on them.

    Best regards

  • 16 Jun 2020, 7:10 p.m.

    A special cal 89 for sure, you don't see these often in platinum.

    Normally we don't discuss prices here, but at that price, it is a bargain .

    I believe all is ok with this watch. Different dial suppliers can have small
    differences in the printing,writing.

    Maybe some experts will have another opinion, but for me it is OK.

    Thank you for showing.

  • Apprentice
    16 Jun 2020, 7:13 p.m.

    Sorry for the price I did not know.

    Thanks for your answer !

  • Master
    16 Jun 2020, 7:51 p.m.

    A special cal 89 indeed, I second what Tonny says - a gem and a bargain!

  • Master
    20 Jun 2020, 12:15 p.m.

    It is hard to qualify this watch.

    It is clearly an c.89. It would be a higher level movement, 17 jewels. But the
    restoration was done in poor way.

    The winding wheels can easily becom rusty. The way this problem was solved
    is... (no more comment).

    The case is 99.5 % not original. (no iwc markings, serial numer =?)

    It is possible the movement was sold by IWC to a "private label" watch
    company. But then the dial should not be marked IWC. Any c.89 dial fits to
    this movement.

    When you send the serial number of the movement to IWC, may be they can find
    out to whom the movement was sold.

    For me a strange watch, but it looks like an IWC, similar watches wher sold by
    IWC.I'd had hesitated to pay 1000 Euro for it, but it could be a nice find.

    regards

    watch77

  • Master
    21 Jun 2020, 11:08 a.m.

    Maybe a Japanese Isomura platinum case, Japanese platinum case in
    the50's-60's

    As Ralph said it would be interesting to see to whom IWC sold the movement,
    and if indeed it was Isomura

    Cheers from the cellar

  • Apprentice
    21 Jun 2020, 5:48 p.m.

    Many thanks again for the very informative answers.

    Greg said what I wanted to know about.

    I was thinking of a japanese market iwc. I bought this watch on a japanese
    auction site. I also noticed throughout my research that only models from
    japan have this kind of engraving on the inner part of the caseback.

  • Apprentice
    21 Jun 2020, 5:56 p.m.

    So the conclusion is that this watch is very much likely to be a Japanese
    Domestic Market watch with
    a case made by ISOMURA.

    Here are some infos that I found about it : "In the 1960s Isomura, who were
    the Japanese distributor for IWC watches, produced a small number of platinum
    cases for the Japanese domestic market. These cases were made in Japan in
    order to avoid the prohibitively high tariffs on importing platinum cases from
    Switzerland."

    I tried to look for more information about ISOMURA but I did not find much.

    Are they still in business ? Is the quality of their case as good as IWC ?