Where are the new movements?

Why dont the new (pilot) watches have any of the new movements, like the cal 42000?

Hi Doc,

In a previous thread Your text to link here...Jiipee told us that in a presentation by Stefan Ihnen last year he said that it would take 18 months for the new movements to be ready for use, so maybe for SIHH 2017

Regards

Peter

Hmm, if you start counting from January 2016, I guess SIHH 2018 is a better bet. And 2018 is: IWC 150 years! I guess we should be prepared for something really special, like possibly the re-launch of the Da Vinci family: that would be extraordinary!

Kind regards,
Paul

The statement about 18 months remaining development time was made in July 2015, so a presentation of new movements in January 2017 SIHH is at least possible, as we know that new watches will appear to retailers some months after their unveiling at SIHH. On the other hand, anyone who has experience in product development knows that the schedules are often hard to keep...

I think the main argument for 2017 launch is that there is probably a mounting pressure on IWC, as most of their competitors have already presented in-house movements.

The main argument for 2018 launch, imo, is that IWC hardly wants to launch watches with their new in-house movements until they feel very confident about their reliability and performance. Any early teething problems would inevitably gain much negative publicity, which is the last thing these important new calibers need.

Beyond Stefan Ihnen's statement there would be a good reason for the new movements to arrive in 2017: the Aquatimer will turn 50 and the new movements are to drive the enter set of watches, e. g. the Pilot and the Aquatimer line.
A bigger birthday, like that of the 150 years IWC is bound to perform "higher class" movements, so why not a Grand Complication on the basis of the 89xxx, Tourbillons, etc.
So hopefully the cal. 69xxx (positioned under the cal. 89xxx) will drive a new (optionally smaller) Aquatimer Chrono in 2017, in spite it's a bit premature to the 5-year turnover.
Anyway, a nice guesswork for the next years :)

Or maybe they will appear sooner in something totally unexpected.