IWC 18K White Gold Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar MoonPhase Chronograph Ref IW3750

This IWC 18K White Gold Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar MoonPhase Chronograph Ref:IW3750. It is in near mint condition with light signs of wear. Watch only.

In the midst and wake of the Quartz crisis, many brands and watchmakers were starting to lose hope. These complicated pieces continued to be exceedingly rare, as their very purpose came under threat. Indeed, this seismic event had decimated the watchmaking industry, with the number of watchmakers in Switzerland having dropped from 1,600 to 600.

However in the midst of all that, a rather very audacious move, under the stewardship of Günter Blümlein* as CEO of IWC, with the technical guidance of Legandary Master Watchmaker, Kurt Klaus, was being carried out.
(* Those not familiar of Mr Blümlein, he was one of the main champions of mechanical watchmaking in the wake of the Quartz Crisis, having helped resuscitate the fortunes of Jaeger-LeCoultre, IWC and A. Lange & Söhne.)

Imagine a watch that provides you day, date, month, leap year and phase of the moon at all times, as long as you keep it wound. But the challenge occurs when you don’t wind your watch and it stops. After, you have to use a series of fidgety pushers, integrated into the case, and a stylus to correct each and every one of these indications individually. Worse, in most perpetual calendars if you accidentally try to adjust it during the date changeover period, you can jam or damage the movement badly.
Well that was exactly what Master Kurt Klaus did!

Kurt Klaus based the movement on a heavily modified Valijoux 7750, developing an in-house perpetual calendar module to sit on top of It, resulting in the calibre IWC 79261.
According to the brand, it was during long walks with his dogs that Klaus mentally projected a new kind of perpetual calendar module, that would only include 81 individual parts and function autonomously, with virtually no correction, until year 2499.
It was also designed with ease of use in mind, such that all the functions – date, day, month, moon phase and year – are synchronised and can advanced together via the crown.

At the same time IWC’s designer Hano Burtscher had dreamed of a watch case inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s recurring circles in his plans for a harbor fort in Piombino from 1499. That was how the Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar series was born!

The dial design features a moonphase at 12 o’clock, while the day, month, and date sub-dials are at 9, 6, and 3 o’clock respectively. Additionally, the sub-dials also double up by indicating the chronograph functions.

This extremely rare and special white-gold version comes with a matching IWC beads of rice bracelet, enhancing the already beautiful watch’s aesthetic!