IWC 18 Karat Yellow Gold Dress Model Caliber 89, circa 1956
View Similar Items
IWC 18 Karat Yellow Gold Dress Model Caliber 89, circa 1956
About the Item
- Creator:
- Case Material:
- Case Dimensions:Width: 1.38 in (35 mm)Length: 1.58 in (40 mm)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1956
- Condition:Recently fully serviced by one of our veteran watchmakers and offered with our 1 year warranty of accurate timekeeping and operation.
- Seller Location:West Hollywood, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: 509601stDibs: LU157371812
IWC
One of Switzerland’s major luxury watch companies was started by an American who saw the potential of bringing Switzerland’s superb watchmaking into the modern age through industrialized manufacturing and high-precision interchangeable parts. The New Hampshire–born watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones (1841–1916), who founded International Watch Company — known today as simply IWC — in 1868, was interested in “combining all the excellence of the American system of mechanism with the more skillful hand labor of the Swiss.”
Setting up the company with another American watchmaker, Charles Kidder, in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, Jones used hydropower from the River Rhine for his plant’s machinery. Rethinking watch design would lead to one of IWC’s early successes: the Pallweber pocket watch. Based on an 1883 patent by Austrian watchmaker Josef Pallweber, the watch employed numbered disks for jumping hour and minute displays, making it a pioneer in digital timekeeping.
After Johann Rauschenbach-Vogel took over the watch manufacturer in 1880, four generations of his family led IWC into the 20th century. In 1905, Ernst Jakob Homberger and his brother-in-law Carl Jung — the famed Swiss psychiatrist — acquired IWC. Homberger bought out Jung’s holdings in 1929, and in the 1930s, the company introduced pilot watches, which were particularly robust and aimed solely at the civil aviation industry. These durable wristwatches were designed specifically to remain operational during extreme temperature shifts. (As blue watch dials are particularly hot right now, IWC's blue-dial Big Pilot is having a moment.)
The company still operates alongside the river where it was founded, having gained an international reputation over the past 150 years for its elegant designs and expert craftsmanship. Vintage IWC watches are prized by collectors — of whom there are many these days — and while the company continues to guard its attention to detail and quality, it has pushed its classic designs forward with modern innovation intended to stand the test of time.
IWC’s 2013 Ingenieur watch collection, with its precision based on an inventive constant-force mechanism, looked back to a 1955 Ingenieur model that featured a durable soft-iron inner cage as well as a 1976 update by leading Swiss watch designer Gérald Genta that encased its mechanism in a sleek steel case. IWC has also had a recent push toward sustainability, designing watches that are made to last a lifetime and beyond and earning the highest environmental ranking of any Swiss watch company in a 2018 report published by the World Wide Fund for Nature Switzerland (WWF).
Find vintage IWC wristwatches, Art Deco–style pocket watches and more on 1stDibs.
- 18Kt Yellow Gold IWC Wrist Watch, Caliber 89, Diameter 36.5mmBy IWCLocated in Antwerp, BE18Kt Yellow Gold IWC Wrist Watch, Caliber 89, Diameter 36.5mm Calber: 89 Movement: Manual winding Functions: Hours, minutes Case: 18kt Yellow gold ...Category
20th Century Swiss Artisan Wrist Watches
MaterialsGold, 18k Gold, Yellow Gold
- 18 Kt Gold IWC Wrist Watch Caliber 89, CalatravaBy IWCLocated in Antwerp, BE18kt Pink Gold IWC Wrist Watch Caliber 89, Calatrava Beautiful collectors watch in mint condition Movement : Mechanical Manual Winding Caliber 89 Ca...Category
20th Century Swiss Artisan Wrist Watches
MaterialsGold
- 18 Kt Gold IWC Vintage Wrist Watch Caliber Rare 89, Fancy LugsBy IWCLocated in Antwerp, BE18 Kt Gold IWC Vintage Wrist Watch Caliber Rare 89, Fancy Lugs Movement : Mechanical Manual Winding Case : 18 kt solid gold Strap : LeatherCategory
20th Century Swiss Artisan Wrist Watches
MaterialsGold
- 18 Kt Gold Iwc Wrist Watch Caliber 83By IWCLocated in Antwerp, BE18 kt Gold Iwc Wrist Watch Caliber 83 Extremely rare IWC in mint condition collectors watch Movement: Mechanical Manual Winding caliber 83 Case: 18k...Category
20th Century Swiss Artisan Wrist Watches
MaterialsGold
- 18 Kt Gold IWC Wrist Watch Automatic Caliber 8541 / 810ABy IWCLocated in Antwerp, BE18 Kt Gold IWC Wrist Watch Automatic Caliber 8541 / 810A Extremely Rare Iwc in super condition,collectors watch. Movement : Mechanical with Automatic ...Category
20th Century Swiss Artisan Wrist Watches
MaterialsGold
- 18 Kt Gold IWC Wrist Watch Caliber 88 Rare Manual Winding CalatravaBy IWCLocated in Antwerp, BE18 Kt Gold IWC Wrist Watch Caliber 88 Rare Manual Winding Calatrava Extremely rare IWC collectors watch in mint condition big size for the 1950 s Mov...Category
20th Century Swiss Artisan Wrist Watches
MaterialsGold