Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/03/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Jeff Moore writes: > 2006-03-26-00:44:16 Will von Dauster: > > Does IWC still make their own calibres? Just curious. Very nice > > watches regardless! > > That's an excellent question, one they're not too clear about, at > least in the literature I've found easily; perhaps someone with some > actual knowledge, not talking out his buttocks like me, will chime in. > Yes, they do. Not to the extent that they were prior to quartz watches almost killing off the Swiss watch business in the late 1960's/early 70's. They started to go back to more inhouse movements in the year 2000 with the release of their Pellaton Cal. 5000 design for their Portuguese 2000 watch. > I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of their mainstream designs > have ETA innards, in common with practically the entire rest of the > industry. The watch I just bought presumably has an ETA-sourced > calibre. I have no complaint about the quality of ETA movements, but > it's more than a little, well, dreary that you're so much less likely > to find the individualistic mechanical marvels of each watch company > within the case. > > I wonder if there are still a few models with Jaeger-LeCoultre bits > inside, as certainly used to be true in the past. > My Mark XII Pilot's Watch uses the excellent 36 Jewel 884/2 Cal. movement which was designed by IWC but assembled by JLC. Another exceptional Calibre. > I don't know about some of the more elaborate IWC efforts -- are the > movements for their more over-the-top watches (the Grande > Complication, or the Portuguese Tourbillon Mystere, for example) their > own design, or have such things as those become commodities as well? > All of their complications are in-house designed and manufactured to my knowledge. Regards, Greg