SIHH 2009: IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Date-Month Watch

The IWC Da Vinci watch collection has long symbolized inventiveness and exceptional mechanical brilliance.  In 2009, the famous watchmaking house from Schaffhausen introduces a complex new model, which combines a flyback chronograph complication with a perpetual calendar whose date, month, and leap year indications are presented in digital format.  These sophisticated mechanical indications recall a time 125 years past, when IWC acquired the rights to a jumping hour mechanism by Josef Pallweber, a 19th century horologist and inventor.

The intricate tonneau-shaped case of the IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month watch is manufactured from platinum or 18-karat rose gold; it shares the same complex finishing details as the Da Vinci Chronograph and measures 44 millimeters x 52.8 millimeters.  Silvered dials with a vertical tapestry pattern present an image of impeccable elegance--an appropriately serene canvas for the impressive array of complications.  The subdial at 12 o'clock--familiar from the Da Vinci Chronograph--presents elapsed chronograph hours and minutes on a single plane; not only visually elegant, this mechanical solution enables the chronograph to keep time as a normal watch does.  An added benefit of the single-dial chronograph display is the capability for keeping track of a second time zone.  Boldly displayed to both sides of the upper subdial are the digital date and month, which appear in twin windows separated by a bar.  The subdial at 6 o'clock for the subsidiary seconds hand features a small cutout, through which the leap year cycle may be viewed.

Animating the IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month watch is the manufacture 89800 caliber, a prestigious self-winding movement comprised of 474 individual parts.  The Caliber 89800 offers a number of exceptional details; among these elements are a column-wheel control for the chronograph, a double-pawl automatic winding mechanism, and an ingenious perpetual calendar mechanism which is programmed to operate for perpetuity and may be adjusted by the wearer, via the winding crown.  Sophisticated engineering solutions permit stored energy to actuate the instant switching of the disc without affecting amplitude in any significant way.  Frequency of the balance is 28,800 alternations per hour.  Power reserve of the spring barrel is 68 hours.  

The IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month watch features sapphire crystals on both sides of the case.  A broad strap in alligator leather and a folding clasp in rose gold or platinum completes the ensemble.  Production of the platinum model will be limited to an edition of 500 pieces.