What does a manufacture get when it combines all of its military, scientific, and engineering knowledge into one watch? The IWC Ingenieur.
But the Ingenieur's story really begins with the IWC Mark XI. As a navigator’s wristwatch, the Mark XI had to stand up to the magnetic interference posed by instruments in an airplane’s cockpit. Albert Pellaton, IWC’s master calibrist, achieved this by surrounding the movement in a soft iron cage. IWC then took the information gleaned from making the Mark XI, which was purpose-built according to stringent standards set by the British Ministry of Defense, and used it to produce a high-grade civilian timekeeper in the form of the Ingenieur.
While this watch was to be less martial in spirit, it had to be no less anti-magnetic, or robust, due to the type of person whom IWC meant to wear it — scientists and engineers, whose work put them in close contact with equipment that emitted high levels of magnetism.
This particular Ingenieur, a Reference 666AD, dates to circa the late 1950s-early 1960s and features a 36mm stainless steel case, a silver sunburst dial with a matching dauphine handset, and a signed crown. Powered by the impressive Caliber 853 automatic movement with soft iron, anti-magnetic dust cover, this piece is wildly cool and purpose built.
Don’t pass up this opportunity to own one of the most important references from the Atomic Age!