IWC Hand Wind Replicas Sale, Faux IWC Hand Wind Watches

IWC Aquatimer 2000 White / Rubber (IW3568-11)

I love it... I just wish it came in all white with maybe a black trim on it but besides that it's a great watch

---- [Rating: 5 / 5 stars]

Review by Denver Pereira, From Germany Lübeck

IWC Ingenieur Automatic Climate Action (IW3234-02)

I really wanted to like this IWC Ingenieur watch but it is too big for me. I have a small wrist and this was more like wearing 2 watches for me. Sorry Stefani, maybe next time.

---- [Rating: 5 / 5 stars]

Review by Irma Avila, From Lithuania Marijampole

IWC Big Pilot (IW5002-01)

Fast ship A++++

---- [Rating: 5 / 5 stars]

Review by Brian S, From Poland Nowa Iwiczna

The Portuguese Grande Complication (Ref. 3776) has a total of 20 different displays and functions. The Calibre 79091 powers the chronograph functions, a perpetual calendar with displays for the date, day, month, year, decade and century as well as a perpetual moon phase and, supreme achievement in the art of mechanical watchmaking, the minute repeater.
The watch is available in 18-carat red gold or platinum.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the Portuguese watch family, the Grande Complication model appears with a number of understated modifications. The silver-plated dial, for instance, no longer features an engraving of the globe showing the lines of latitude and longitude. Because of this, it appears more composed, and the typical characteristics of the Portuguese - feuille hands, appliqued Arabic numerals and railway-track-style chapter ring - are set off to better advantage. In the new collection, the case back is decorated with an engraved compass rose. The newly designed ergonomic strap horns are closer to the wrist and make the watch more comfortable to wear.

Between 1983 and 1985, master watchmaker Kurt Klaus designed and built the perpetual calendar for IWC Schaffhausen. It is mechanically programmed until 2499 and will require correction on just three occasions (in 2100, 2200 and 2300). What is more, the perpetual calendar has its own program to fulfil, and unlike the time display, does not need to be driven continuously.
Instead of this, it is given a mechanical impulse that advances it between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. The perpetual calendar is operated simply, via the crown.

The moon phase display, too, will be just 1 day out of sync after 122 years.
The complex minute repeating strike train chimes with lower chimes for the hours, a double strike for the quarter-hours and a strike on the higherpitched gong for the minutes. Each gong is individually made by hand and then carefully tuned for pitch and tonal purity.

The watch is supplied with a Santoni alligator leather strap; the strap on the 18-carat red gold version is stitched with red gold thread while the strap on the exclusive platinum model is finished with a platinum thread. Both versions are limited to 250 watches.

For a brand that already has its own high-end in-house movement production, the move towards producing base calibres in-house is an unusual one. Although supplies risk becoming scarcer in future, alternative suppliers are gradually improving the reliability of their movement s- one of the main requirements of these so-called "tractor" calibres. Why then go through the laborious process of duplicating all this work in-house? Not just once, but twice, as IWC reveals late-stage prototypes of its new 69000 and 42000 calibres in Geneva this week.

For Stefan Ihnen, Head of Research and Development, IWC, it is simply a question of choice, even if that choice involves considerable investment and long-term development work. "In terms of the meaning of "manufacture", the watches in which our 52 calibre movements are used are all above 10,000 Swiss francs, so this is clearly the "manufacture" segment," he explains. "These two new movements don't have the free hairspring or the Pellaton winding system, for example. They are very close to what you can get from ETA or Sellita but our strategy is to at least give us the choice between such external movements and an in-house option, which we did not have in the past."

With reliability being the main concern, testing the prototypes of the new 42000 and 69000 calibres alone is not enough. The entire semi-automated assembly line for these movements has also been tested in the development laboratories and will be disassembled piece by piece before being reassembled in the workshops in Schaffhausen where the new calibres will be assembled. Around 100 prototype movements have already been produced as part of this testing procedure, with 100 more set to follow in a second phase. "Of the next series of 100 prototypes, about 20 will be tested on the wrist and the rest will go into a 500-hour test. This will simulate wearing conditions," says Mr Ihnen.

But when the switch to production comes, the quantities involved will be thousands, not hundreds, which is why the quality and reliability has to be spot-on. "The ideal is that when we go into series production we are already reliable," explains Stefan Ihnen, "and we won't face any problems. We are looking at models such as the Aquatimer and the Pilot's watches, for example, which come in quite huge volumes. So when you take this step of switching to the new movement it's a big one and it has to be reliable."

Another thing that will set the new calibres apart from their competitors is their finish. In keeping with the philosophy of IWC's American founder, Florentine Ariosto Jones, who sought to industrialise watchmaking, these new calibres will have a different aesthetic from those produced in Grenchen or La Chaux-de-Fonds. "We have our own decorations and touches such as the gold oscillating mass and the blued screws, but we are coming from an industrial background," Mr Ihnen explains. "Our founder already had this idea of industrialising watch production so it's not a problem for us if our movements have some of this industrial character. The minute attention to detail that some brands lavish on their movements is not the main focus for us, it's more about robustness and reliability. This is in the heritage of IWC and I think if we did more decoration and finishing it could be too much."