Lot 76

IWC / Intern. Watch Co.

Ingenieur Automatic 500.000 A/m

A rare, antimagnetic neo-vintage wristwatch with date, only a small number of the "Ingenieur 500.000 A/m" were produced

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The "Ingenieur 500.000 A/m" can be regarded as a sleeper. The model is well remembered for its innovation and technical sophistication. With its low production number, it’s a very collectible watch, definitely from a technical point of view, but also historically most interesting.
This watch, reference 3518, was produced from 1989 to 1992 in a very limited series. All in all, only 327 pieces were made, with only 25 in white gold, as a special edition for the Italian market.
During the 1980s, IWC had developed two exceptional amagnetic movements, a compass watch and a mine diver's watch for the German Bundeswehr. Now, IWC planned to commercialise the acquired technical know-how by developing an even more resistant calibre for a new leader model of their "Ingenieur" line. The goal was not to shield the movement against magnetic fields in a soft iron Faraday's cage as in the previous models, but to make the movement itself amagnetic. The expectations were even surpassed when the new calibre 35790 set a new world record surviving a field of 3.7 million A/m. These astonishing results were achieved by a set of technical innovations, including using rubies as rotor ball-bearings, a special amagnetic material for pallet fork and roller, as well as a new alloy (niobium-zirconium) for the balance spring.
Source: www.moeb.ch