The Ingenieur Family

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NOW THERE’S A NAME FOR VISIONARY TECHNOLOGY: INGENIEUR

In the early 1970s, freelance watch designer Gérald Genta was walking on the shores of Lake Geneva when he spotted a diver, whose helmet was secured to his diving suit with screws. This tiny detail inspired him to adopt a distinctly modernist, technical approach that was to revolutionize watch design. Instead of trying to hide the screws or functional bores, he left them plain for all to see on the bezel. For IWC Schaffhausen Gérald Genta designed the legendary Ingenieur SL, Reference 1832. Five rudimentary bores could be seen in the bezel. These are engaged with a special tool during manufacture to bring the bezel into position so it could be screwed down. The Ingenieur SL was launched in 1976. Its eye-catching design stood for masculine values: it was rugged and sporty with a distinctly technical appeal, and has influenced the appearance of the Ingenieur watches to this day. The Ingenieur watch family’s success story, incidentally, began back in the 1950s. It was an era with a booming economy.

Ingenieur Automatic Carbon Performance
Ingenieur Automatic Carbon Performance

—Reference 3224

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An increasing number of technical appliances were making their way into ordinary households. These generated magnetic fields that adversely affected the accuracy of wristwatches. Engineers, in particular, often worked in areas subject to magnetic fields. By this time, IWC had perfected protection against magnetic fields with the help of a soft-iron inner case including a soft-iron dial to the point that making a new watch line especially for this profession seemed like a good idea. The lightning bolt, a physical symbol for electricity, became the signature for a new watch class named after its main target group: the Ingenieur.

The first Ingenieur, unveiled in 1955, was in several respects a quantum leap for watchmaking. The developers’ aim was to make a perfectly protected, high-precision watch, wound solely by movements of the wearer’s arm. IWC had already made the leap from hand-wound to automatic movements 4 years previously. However, it was only with the Ingenieur watch that IWC catapulted itself into the vanguard of Swiss manufacturers competing to create the first bidirectional automatic movement. Its winding mechanism (calibres 852 and 8521) was the brainchild of the then Technical Director, Albert Pellaton. The Pellaton system did not convert the movement of the rotor into a rotary movement: it featured an eccentrically shaped cam and a rocking bar with two pawls that translated it into a bidirectional to-and-fro movement. The concept is unusually efficient and repeated in several watches in the current collection.

F1
—Finding the ideal line calls for absolute precision and perfect timing

In the late 1950s, the movement in the Ingenieur watches was successively improved until, in 1964, it attained the pinnacle of perfection found in the 854 and 8541 calibres. The second Ingenieur generation, recognizable by its new date window, was launched in 1967.

In the 1970s and 1980s, quartz watches reigned supreme on the world’s watch markets. IWC used quartz-regulated oscillators to keep time in certain Ingenieur models. A little later, in 1983, the new Ingenieur SL (Reference 3505) was just 10 millimetres high and back on sale with a mechanical automatic movement: the 375 calibre was just under 4 millimetres in thickness. One of its typical features was the diamond pattern on the dial.

In 1985, with the Ingenieur in titanium, Reference 3350, the Schaffhausen-based manufacturer underscored its unparalleled reputation as one of the watch industry’s great materials pioneers.

Ingenieur Chronograph Racer
Ingenieur Chronograph Racer

—Reference 3785

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IWC HAS MAINTAINED ONE OF THE LEADING POSITIONS IN TITANIUM SURFACE FINISHING TO THIS DAY

Ingenieur Constant-Force Tourbillon
Ingenieur Constant-Force Tourbillon

—Reference 5900

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In 1989, IWC presented the Ingenieur Automatic “500,000 A/m”, Reference 3508, whose impressive protection against magnetic fields withstood even a magnetic resonance tomograph generating 3.7 million A/m.

In 2005, 50 years after the first IWC Ingenieur, the watch family celebrated a stirring comeback. The Ingenieur Automatic, Reference 3227, assumed the cool, engineering-inspired aura of Gérald Genta’s Ingenieur SL. The newly developed IWC manufactured 80110 calibre with its Pellaton winding system also featured an integrated shock-absorption system to protect it against impacts and vibrations. As a symbol of the new partnership between IWC and Mercedes-AMG, IWC unveiled two Ingenieur models in titanium. They underscored the values shared by the technology specialists in Schaffhausen and Affalterbach: precision, performance and engineering expertise.

In 2007, the Big Ingenieur’s extra-large 51113 calibre, Pellaton winding system and 7-day power reserve created a sensation. For mechanical watch lovers with a penchant for precision, it was also available as a chronograph with a tachymeter display that was practical for calculating speeds.

F1
—IWC and the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team share the same passion for precision technology and performance engineering

The new Ingenieur collection for 2013 acknowledges the global partnership between IWC and the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team. Their cooperation is founded on a jointly held conviction that a pioneering approach and skilled craftsmanship can take mechanics into new and unexplored realms.

Every season, the Mercedes engineers create a new, improved version of the Silver Arrow. IWC Schaffhausen emulates that in 2013 with a completely overhauled watch collection. Lovers of mechanical timepieces can look forward to more powerful in-house movements, more material innovations and even more exciting functions.

The technical tour de force of the new season is the Ingenieur Constant-Force Tourbillon with double moon display. A highly efficient example of precision engineering, its outstanding feature is the regularity of its rate. To achieve this, IWC’s watchmakers integrated a patented constant-force mechanism in a tourbillon. Another masterpiece of the art of watchmaking is the quick-action switch found in the Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month, which moves up to five display discs simultaneously. Its case is made of titanium aluminide, another compound used in Formula One.

Ingenieur Automatic AMG Black Series Ceramic
Ingenieur Automatic AMG Black Series Ceramic

—Reference 3225

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THE NEW INGENIEUR AUTOMATIC CARBON PERFORMANCE WILL APPEAL TO MOTORSPORT ENTHUSIASTS WITH ITS CASE MADE OF CARBONFIBRE MATTING

Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month
Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month

—Reference 3792

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Other materials frequently found in modern, high-tech racing cars, such as carbon, ceramic and titanium, have established themselves as typical new design features of the Ingenieur watch family alongside the five characteristic ceramic screw heads in the bezel. The screws secure the bezel to the case and are a reinterpretation of Gérald Genta’s original design cues. The newly designed line includes the Ingenieur Automatic Carbon Performance with a case and dial made of carbon fibres, as well as the Ingenieur Automatic AMG Black Series Ceramic. The Ingenieur Double Chronograph Titanium, featuring a split-seconds function, and the Ingenieur Dual Time Titanium, which shows a second local time, both come in a titanium case.

The classic Ingenieur line in the tradition of the 1976 Ingenieur SL and the Ingenieur Automatic of 2005 is still instantly recognizable from the stainless-steel cases and the five distinctive drill holes in the bezel. Technically speaking, and depending on the model in question, the roots go back all the way to the original Ingenieur of 1955 with Pellaton winding, a shock-absorption system and magnetic field protection.

F1

The Ingenieur Chronograph Racer and the Ingenieur Chronograph Silberpfeil are perfect for recording stopped times, lap times and the speed achieved over a measured distance. While the Ingenieur Chronograph Racer is decorated with the engraving of a modern Formula One vehicle, the engraving on the back of the Silberpfeil celebrates the historic racing car of the same name made by Mercedes-Benz.

With a case measuring 10 millimetres in height and 40 millimetres in diameter, the Ingenieur Automatic is particularly well suited to a more slender wrist. Thanks to its three hands and stainless-steel case with distinctive bores in the bezel, this elegant watch clearly reflects the genetic code of the Ingenieur watch family. Its protection against magnetic fields refers to the technical tradition of this watch line.

There is a surprise this year in the form of a new rubber strap with a textile or leather inlay. This solution is an inspired way of combining the desired “look” of the outer material with the comfort and durability of rubber.

The new Ingenieur collection will doubtless appeal equally to admirers of top-quality in-house watch movements as to motorsport fans who love nothing more than the scream of a V8 engine.

Ingenieur Double Chronograph Titanium
Ingenieur Double Chronograph Titanium

—Reference 3865

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Explore the Ingenieur Family

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