Old IWC watch



It’s almost priceless to you if you like it.

They call them the poor man’s Patek Philippe and they have a great WWII Heritage. Your watch could have a hell of a story behind it.

I’m into Longines myself but IWC is in the same bracket of elegant Swiss watchmakers.

Enjoy marra

Incidentally, what did you pay for it so we know how well you did?

:cool:
 
I think you're looking at a calibre 53 movement, which was made for pocket watches with the winding stem at 3 o'clock between 1888 and 1940. Some poor quality photos here: IWC Pocket Watch | CALIBRE IWC, 49/50, 52/53

Face may well be original, case is definitely non-original, looks like the bottom right lug has been cut to fit the lever adjustment. Still an interesting piece.
Tried to look at it with magnifying glasses - to me it's exactly the Calibre 53. The case has been cut, as you point out, to fit the pull out lever.

For nostalgia I hope it's an original face with the 53 and the rest is married parts, but I'm grateful for all the information you and others have helped providing :):):)
 
Thank you for all your helpful information, marra. I'm not sure how I'm going about finding out more, but the watchmaker might know more after having a look at it.

I paid 350 quid for it at a antique-market. The seller had very little knowledge about it and claimed to have bought it in France many years ago. He had a few Omega's at fair prices (one a rebuild pocket watch), but claimed to have been collecting Oris watches - he had about 25 of them. All watches seemed to have had a quick clean-up and a new strap. As the IWC has a see-through back it wasn't too hard to have a look at the condition, but as you suggested I'll let someone specialising in vintage watches have a look and find a suitable strap.


Thanks, marra.
Speak to Alex at Perpetual time. A very knowledgeable man with a hell of a pedigree in the business.

Contact
 
Last edited:

Back
Top