The "mystery" of the white dialled IWC Mark XI (1948)
IWC had a history of providing watches to specific army requirements to various countries of this world. The Mark XI is one of those famous models in this category. And we normally know them for their characteristic black dial with specific army layout an...
Its a joy to wear an old watch with a lot of history.
Even after all these years it gives the right time. Cheers. Geross.
Very interesting story.
The lack of Incabloc is particularly visible on the second shot as you told us. Strange decision even thought. But, finally, an interesting timepiece for watch collectors ;-) Best wishes Alkiro
The initial assumption after the invention and introduction of "Incabloc" was that ...
... Incabloc would go at cost of accuracy. Which is why it is assumed that the MOD initially went for non-Incabloc.
Never seen a white-dialed Mark XI before.
And if I had I'd have believed it to be a fake/Frankenwatch before reading your post. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Padj -and: no I did not post it there. In fact I just recently...
...closed my forum account there after many years. The vintage section there is unfortunately dominated by "I inherited this watch, can you tell me if it is authentic" type of posts. More lively here, more content here. Cheers, HSTE
These are interesting comments.
I was active on it for a couple years and found the discussions interesting, especially with Pilots and vintage Portugeisers. And very, very passionate-nasty at times! I guess it's changed.
Back in 2004, I had a white-dialed Mark XV
Perhaps it was made by IWC as homage to the early one you present here. I cannot remember except that it was thought to be very rare by some IWC fans I knew, and a German guy on holiday here in the US talked me into selling it to him. Do you know any hist...
There was a white-dialed Mark XV produced in limited numbers. I believe the watch is referred to as the "Gadebusch" and was
named for the jewelry store which commissioned it; someone please correct me if I'm wrong. I don't know if its commissioning had anything to do with the white-dialed Mark XI pictured and described here.
I did a bit of research and reading
It appears my watch was not one of the 50 Gadebusch watches. They had engraving on the back. Mine was part of another batch made around the same time, and reputed to be 200, 600, or unlimited numbers (no agreement on the quantity). Although it was suppose...
Interesting post!
Interesting watch! Thank you for sharing, HSTE. Here is my "Black" saying hello! Best Blomman ...
Perhaps the dials were refinished by the MOD . . .
. . . at the same time and for the same reason . . . [image from seller's website] . . . as the '56 RAF Omegas. The script lay-out is intriguing; can't recall seeing 'International' over 'Watch Co' before. Art ...
Thanks Art for your feed-back. I personally consider this dial to be ....
... neither MOD nor IWC, I consider it to have been added in a larger (few hundrets) non-official batch. Cheers, HSTE