Horological Meandering

nilomis
[Omega]
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After pressing 3000 time the “Insert” button here ... 3K "club"

Team,

First of all, I want to say a very warm “thank you” to this community that makes our hobby so interesting and fun, at the same time “Pursuing integrity and perfection in an imperfect world ”.

I arrived here long time ago (five-six years? I don't remember), as most of us, looking for information and, at the same time, expecting the same clash of egos that we see on other forums (watch related or not).

It was a great surprise to me to see a complete different environment, a collaborative approach and a true universal cordiality.
Questions, no matter how naive they are, always receive a polite and, when possible, detailed answers.

I learned a lot here. I learned how to appreciate fine horology and also how to extract pleasure from "pedestrian" pieces. I learned how mature the movement industry is and how precise can be a mechanical watch even the mass produced ones.

Being, by professional lucky, a person that knows a large number of countries I feel at home here, a true global forum, and I enjoy very much how those cultural differences (and believe me, the world is small but there are many cultural differences) are managed, respected and accepted.

Believe me, I don’t know other place on the Internet where this happens on a so smooth way and this somehow renews my faith on humankind.
Some day, I don’t know when and how, this entire physical planet must be like here:

No battles, no ego clashes, just politeness and one person eager to help another.

Enough said, in order to celebrate my 3K post here, a very important milestone to me, I decided to offer a gift to me.

The "gift"

It’s, of course, a watch and I was chasing it since the announcement in 2008 as part of the 140th anniversary of IWC.

The most interesting part of this collection to me is the IWC Ingenieur.

I always admired the Inge line and this “new vintage” includes the famous Pellaton winding system along with an “in house” (more about that later) movement.

The hunt

I was hunting this particular watch without any success for years when one day, on our very small weekly GTG, a seller (very good one) got a call from another friend.

After the call, I had the following conversation:

(Seller) - Mr. M. wants to sell his IWC Ingenieur and this is a complex sale to me. The watch is relatively expensive and is not a common Inge model, meaning that I need to explain a lot to try to sell this watch (he hates to explain to a buyers why the watch is this and not that).

(Me) - Why is not a common Inge?

(Seller) - It’s one from the vintage collection, circa 2008 and the watch looks way too dressy for an Inge.

(Me) – Interesting. Can you send to me a picture? It does not need to be a fancy one. Just to identify the watch.

(Seller) – Sure. He wants X in cash to fund another acquisition.

Driving home, the picture arrived and it was THE WATCH represented on a very blurry picture.

I call the seller immediately and he said that since I know the owner, I could do the deal directly, giving up his sale commission (Thanks!!).

Considering that I maintain a strict budget for watches, I asked to the seller if he was interested on any of my watches, in order to fund the Inge deal.

He said, sure what about that Omega that you have on your wrist.

I look to the Omega and … good bye Omega, welcome IWC Ingeneur! (Nothing against Omega but I need the IWC)





Maintenance

Done the deal(s), the next day I got my Inge.

It was everything that I dreamed plus some. Wonderful watch by all means. It arrived, as a full set plus some other things.

After a few days, I notice some dirty spots on the movement and, in panic mode; I took the watch immediately to my watchmaker.

He call me down, stating that could be some lubricant that leaked and he notice that the watch, being from 2008, was just on time for a full oiling and cleaning.

I left the watch with him and few days later he called saying that my Inge was ready.

Here are some pictures of the maintenance process:

1) Movement without the rotor and parts of the Pellaton system





2) The main parts of the Pellaton engine





3) More parts removed from the movement





4) Movement being "fine tuned", as I like




5) On all positions, of course





My watch

I grabbed the watch, perfectly cleaned and oiled and got also, by his my watchmaker standards, a CD with pictures of the entire maintenance process.

If something is close to perfection is this watch, even the deployment buckle works!

Of course, I changed the strap. The OEM is not bad but I like to impost at least a small part of me on my watches.

Some may say that this is not a true Ingeneur because it lacks the anti-magnetic properties (no soft iron cover) but I don’t complain because IWC could not hold the beauty of the Pellaton loading system from our inquisitive eyes.

For sure is not a 666 but I'm trying to stay away from vintage those days, for several reasons (and frustrations).




(Advertising material - from the Internet)

Let’s see some pictures to illustrate my feelings:

The case

The case is made with the central part and the sides of the lugs finely brushed coupled with a polished bezel.

The case back is transparent allowing to see the 80111 movement in full glory.

Very pleasing to my eyes.

The case, without the crown, has 42mm but seems to be bigger because of the bezel size and polishing.





The lugs

The lugs attach to the case on an angular way and are curved. This allows a very comfortable wearing to this watch, even on my skinny wrist.

The lug size is, thanks IWC, the standard 22mm.






The dial

The dial is jet black (it looks blue on some pictures because of the anti reflex treatment) and follows the design of the old Inges.

I love this minimalist approach. No numbers to distract my eyes and enough information to read the time.

The lume is outstanding and there is a small lume spot on every minute. One can true read the time on a dark room.





Overall views

This is, by my book, the definition of a cool watch. No more no less. Just a watch.





Imposing presence, as most of the IWC watches.





Day to day use

Even before the maintenance, my Inge was spot on. After the maintenance and the special "tuning" this watch simply don't deviate from my Emerald Time a single seconds for days and days.

One can get bored trying to map the deviations from this watch.

Wearing it is a pleasure and, a mandatory feature where I live, it "flies under the radar", meaning that I can wear my Inge on almost any area here.
Of course that I don't but is good to know.
                                                                                                                                              
The final question: Is the IWC 80111 that powers my watch a true “in house”?

I saw this question over and over along several discussions but no one was able to demonstrate any side of the consideration. Some says that the 80111 is a pure in house movement and others states that the 80111 is just another incarnation of the ETA/Valjoux 7750.

Looking to the maintenance pictures, I did another visit to my watchmaker and I asked to the expert that performed the maintenance if he saw anything common between the 80111 and the ETA/Valjoux 7750.

The answer was direct. “The main plate looks like a 7750 but the similarity ends there”.

Perusing the pictures of the maintenance, I was able to see a match between those two pictures:

a) My Inge IWC 80111





b) A vanilla ETA/Valjoux 7750




(Picture from the Internet)

c) Parts breakdown (from IWC)






My conclusion is that the IWC designers reused their 7750 expertize and some parts, not many, from the 7750.
Some say that is around 20%.

From now on I call the IWC 80111 as part in house, part 7750 (the 20%).

Disclaimer:

I never ever did comparisons between other movements of other brands. Some says that brand “A” reused the design of brand “B” on a chronograph movement.

There was an interesting discussion on the old Purists about this how similar is a JLC chronograph movement and a Piguet caliber 1185:  

Should we care? I don't.

I know nothing about the Swiss movement industry but, just like other industries, there should be a lot of formal and informal information sharing.
Who can say for sure?

Conclusion

Did this finding change my initial impression from this watch? No way!

It was gorgeous before this finding and is gorgeous after. I’m a Purist but not at this purist point.

Thanks

Again, I want to say thank you to all of this wonderful community and let's see how fast I can hit the 10K mark.

Cheers,

Nilo