IWC Ingeniuer White Dial IW3506

For its age, this watch is in excellent condition. There is some light patina to the dial and hands. The watch is not water resistant.

The Ingenieur’s history began in 1954 as a watch designed specifically for engineers and technicians who needed a timepiece that could withstand the rigors of their work. It had to be highly resistant to magnetic fields, which could cause timepieces to run erratically or stop altogether. The Ingenieur achieved this by using a soft iron inner case that shielded the movement from magnetic fields.

IWC’s Technical Director, Albert Pellaton , was credited as being the mastermind behind the iconic watch. Pellaton's initial two calibres were graded to have a protection of 80,000 amperes per meter which was above “16 times the resistance required by the Swiss norm for antimagnetic watches” at the time. For context, the calibres used within both Patek Philippe reference 2570-1 and 3417 from the same period were able to perform in environments up to 450 oersteds (roughly 35,897 amperes per meter).

IWC

IWC, originally known as the International Watch Company, is the unlikely result of an American businessman's industrial practices applied to traditional Swiss watchmaking. His attempt to industrialise Swiss watchmaking was heavily opposed in French Switzerland, but he found in Schaffhausen a town that welcomed his ideas.

Fast forward to today, IWC stays close to its industrial-age heritage. While the new manufacture looks nothing like the factories of the 19th Century, it still approaches watchmaking with the same efficiency that was unheard of when the company was first conceived.