At this year’s Watches and Wonders, IWC Schaffhausen introduced the latest generation of the Ingenieur. Originally released in 1955, the latest execution of this legendary watch takes inspiration from Gérald Genta’s Ingenieur SL from 1976. With his unique artistic signature, Genta (1 May 1931 – 17 August 2011) succeeded in lending the Ingenieur a new, distinctive visual identity thanks to a screw-on bezel with five recesses, a dial with pattern, and an integrated H-link bracelet. Today, the Swiss watch designer’s Ingenieur SL is a collector’s favorite and one of the most sought-after vintage models from IWC.
The overall dimensions of the stainless steel case and integrated bracelet of the Ingenieur Automatic 40 have been reworked down to the smallest detail: While the Ingenieur SL from the 1970s had nose-shaped horns, the new Ingenieur is equipped with a newly engineered middle-link attachment.
“With the new Ingenieur Automatic 40, the steel sports watch with an integrated bracelet returns to our portfolio. While taking inspiration from Gérald Genta’s Ingenieur SL from the 1970s, we invested a lot of time and effort into engineering a new automatic model with perfect case proportions and ergonomics, a high level of detail and finishing, and equipped with modern movement technology. The new Ingenieur Automatic 40 is a versatile luxury sports watch for the 21st century.”
Chris Grainger-Herr, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen
It is water resistant to 100 meters and features a soft-iron inner case to protect the movement (Cal. 32111) from magnetic fields.
One of the most striking changes of the new model is the introduction of functional, polygonal screws on its bezel. For the Ingenieur SL, a bezel with five recesses was screwed onto the case ring. As a result, the recesses ended up in a different position on each watch. With the Ingenieur Automatic 40, five screws secure the bezel to the case. The screws now have a technical function and, as a result, are always in the same position. Christian Knoop, Chief Design Officer of IWC Schaffhausen: “We believe we succeeded in creating a new and contemporary interpretation [of the Ingenieur SL], perfected down to the smallest detail. While keeping faithful to the original design signature, the new Ingenieur Automatic 40 is a perfect embodiment of IWC’s engineering excellence.”
The dial, available in black (Ref. IW328901), “aqua” (Ref. IW328903) and silver-plated (Ref. IW328902, shown in the video below), is distinguished by a grid structure:
Consisting of small lines offset by 90 degrees to each other, it is stamped into the soft iron blank before it is galvanized.
The IWC Ingenieur Automatic 40 is powered by IWC’s 32111 with an automatic pawl winding system and a power reserve of 72 hours, the date disc matches the four available dial colors (and always shows two digits).
Pricing for the stainless steel versions is $11,700, the titanium version with gray dial (Ref. IW328904) is $14,600.
To learn more, visit IWC, here.
