IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar 18K

About the Watch

Basel fair 1985. IWC's main novelty is creating a lot of buzz among watch enthusiasts and experts. IWC’s then head watchmaker Kurt Klaus, the genius behind this project, is busy explaining a new perpetual calendar wristwatch which appears to be pretty unusual. On the caseband, no correction buttons can be found. But the dial displays lot of indications: not only the date, the day of the week, the month and the moon phase but even the year, decade and century.

It is here worth to mention that in the mid-1980s wristwatches with perpetual calendar complications were not user-friendly. Adjusting the calendar was a tedious business which required to perform various operations with the aid of a stylus or correction buttons. If you add that this kind of timepieces were also very expensive and exposed to the risk of malfunctioning, it is easy to understand why the number of users willing to deal with these inconveniences was pretty limited.

With the new IWC Da Vinci, all the calendar displays, including the moon phase were perfectly synchronized and could be advanced day by day using the crown. For the first time, a perpetual calendar wristwatch could be operated as simply as an ordinary watch. Also integrating chronograph functions, the perpetual calendar implementation of the Da Vinci was different for another reason: it featured a four-digit year display.

About the Brand

The heritage of IWC is deeply rooted in American pioneering spirit and entrepreneurship. Florentine Ariosto Jones, a watchmaker from Boston, founds the International Watch Company in 1868. He draws on the help of eminently qualified Swiss watchmakers, modern technology, and hydropower sourced from the nearby River Rhine to manufacture pocket watch movements of the highest possible quality. The Rauschenbachs, an industrialist family from Schaffhausen, take over the company following Jones’ return to the United States. During its early years, IWC produces pocket watches with a digital “Pallweber” display, as well as wristwatches for women and men.