IWC Dress Watch

Simple. Refined. Understated.

If you’ve got those boxes checked during your search for a dress watch, you’re golden.

While the function and use of a stainless steel diver is straightforward, a dress watch should be just as conscious of its role. On the wrist, a dress watch should keep a low profile and subtle enough to accent the wearer and their respective fit. In its purest form, it should be simply constructed, without the noise of a chronograph, bezel or other utility functions.

While the International Watch Company is often associated with their lovely Portuguese chronographs, sturdy Aquatimer divers, Big Pilot aviators, or their 70's-inspired Ingenieur SLs, it has also been a longstanding manufacture of some of the most beautiful dress watches. With a minimally designed case and handsome looks, this IWC Schaffhausen is pretty much the perfect dress watch — we might even argue a perfect everyday watch.

Housed in a 35mm 14K yellow gold case, this piece features an unsigned, yellow gold crown; a domed acrylic crystal and a solid snap caseback. It sits a shade under 10mm in thickness making it an incredibly easy wearing watch, and features a more subtle, lemony tone that’ll speak to those with reserved tastes.

The dial features a rare, rose two-tone configuration with matching Arabic indices applied along a smooth hour track, as well as a matching feuille handset and an oversized constant seconds subsidiary register.

Powering this piece is the venerable IWC Calibre 83 manual-winding movement. Produced in 1935 and retired in 1947, this fantastic mechanical movement features an Incabloc anti-shock device, 6 individual bridges, a straight-line escapement, a self-compensating balance spring and a Breguet overcoil.

Impressive.

In excellent condition, this is a versatile piece that has the range to be worn with a suit, or more casually with jeans and a t-shirt.

The only issue with owning this piece is that the other pieces in your collection will be jealous of all the wrist time this vintage IWC will inevitably be getting!

When an American watchmaker named Florentine Ariosto Jones arrived in Schaffhausen, Switzerland in 1868, he found a city almost frozen in time. Though the Industrial Revolution had swept through America, in Switzerland the situation was very different. Watchmakers still plied their trades by their own firesides, as they had done for centuries. But Jones had in mind something different — an American-style factory where the watches would be designed and assembled in keeping with the old Swiss ways. His methods caught on, and soon there were 196 people employed at his factory.

Though the International Watch Company was founded 35 years before Wilbur and Orville Wright’s first flight, the association between IWC and aviation began just as the age of flight dawned: A pocket watch made by the company in the 1890s found its way into the pocket of one Robert Albert Lotter, a pilot in the German Luftwaffe who served with distinction during the First World War.

Two decades later, in 1936, IWC released a watch that set the standard for pilot’s watch design, the Spezialuhr für Flieger, or Special Pilot's Watch. Another would follow in 1940, the Beobachtungs-ühren (“observation watch”), which spawned an entire model line in IWC’s current collection called the Big Pilot. However, despite the Big Pilot’s current popularity, it was the Special Pilot’s Watch that would lay the cornerstone for IWC’s most iconic line: the Mark series of pilot’s watches.

IWC released the Mark XI in 1948 according to specifications set forth by the British Ministry of Defense. These watches had to be legible, compact, and able to withstand exposure to the magnetic fields emitted by instruments in an airplane’s cockpit. The Mark XI, therefore, had a black dial with large luminous Arabic numbers, while its incredibly robust Calibre 89 movement was encased in an iron cage. (Later, in the 1950s and 1960s, IWC would produce myriad dress watches in steel and gold based upon the Calibre 89 movement, which remain relatively plentiful on the vintage market.)

The Mark XI served as the basis for design inspiration for a robust line of pilot’s watches still being produced today – easily identifiable by their clean, uncluttered dials, robust cases, and outstanding quality.

Our Pledge

Analog:Shift stands behind the authenticity of our products in perpetuity.

Condition

Since our pieces are vintage or pre-owned, please expect wear & patina from usage and age. Please read each item description and examine all product images.

Warranty

We back each Analog:Shift vintage timepiece with a one-year mechanical warranty from the date of purchase.

International Buyers

Please contact us prior to purchase for additional details on shipping and payment options.

All of our watches include complementary insured shipping within the 50 states.

Most of our products are on hand and will ship directly from our headquarters in New York City. In some cases, watches will be shipped directly from one of our authorized partners.

We generally ship our products via FedEx, fully insured, within 5 business days of purchase. An adult signature is required for receipt of all packages for insurance purposes. Expedited shipping is available at an additional cost. We are also happy to hand deliver your purchase in Manhattan or you may pick it up at our showroom.

Returns must be sent overnight or by priority international delivery, fully insured and paid for by the customer. A restocking fee may apply. Watches must be returned in the same condition as initially shipped.

We welcome international buyers, please contact us prior to purchase for additional details on shipping and payment options.