Details
CIRCA: 1991
CASE MATERIAL: 18K gold
CASE SIZE: 39 mm. diam.
BRACELET MATERIAL: 18K gold, approx. overall length 190 mm.
DIAL: Pavé diamond-set with ruby hour markers
MOVEMENT: Automatic
FUNCTIONS: Perpetual calendar, moon phases, year indication, chronograph
CALIBER: 79261
WITH: IWC blank certificate, instruction manual, product literature, extra year calendar insert, fitted wooden presentation box and outer packaging
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Lot Essay

Consigned by a private collector and fresh to the market, this stunning heavy gold complicated bracelet watch is one of the rarest versions of the iconic IWC Da Vinci.

According to the Archives of IWC, only 13 examples were ever made, the present watch was sold in 1991.

The case is set with a total of 148 Top Wesselton white diamonds, 72 on the bezel (0.66 cts) and 76 on the lugs (0.56 cts), the dial is also pavé set with diamonds and in addition 12 rubies as hour markers.

The present watch has been wonderfully preserved and is accompanied by its full heavy 18K gold bracelet and presentation case.

Created by Kurt Klaus at the end of the 1970s, IWC introduced its perpetual calendar mechanism for wristwatches in 1985 in the Da Vinci reference 3570. It was a spectacular novelty at the time and ingeniously all the settings could be done via the crown. Critically acclaimed, the module would grow out to be the most widely sold perpetual calendar mechanism – not only fitted to the Da Vinci collection, but in adapted form in IWC watches such as the Novecento, the GST, the Pilot’s Chronograph and also various models by JLC, including the Master Ultra-Thin Perpetual.

It would also serve as the base for the IWC’s Grande Complication and their masterpiece of the time, the spectacular Destriero Scafusia. The Da Vinci model is now one of the most instantly recognizable watch designs in the world and a standard bearer for IWC.

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