Description
Limited Edition to 50 Pieces and Outstanding, Grande Complication, Minute Repeater, Perpetual Calendar, Chronograph Automatic Wristwatch in Platinum, With Box, Papers and Service, Reference 3770 Lot Description Model: Grande Complication
Reference: 3770
Case Material: Platinum
Bracelet Material: Leather Strap
Year: 1999
Movement: Automatic
Caliber: 79091
Case N°: N° 04/50, 2 661 496
Movement N°: 2 495 006
Dimensions: 42.5 mm
Signed: Dial, Movement and Case
Accessories: Box, Warranty, Certificate, Service and Booklets
The idea behind the “Grande Complication” by IWC was originally born in 1985 and aimed to become the first grande complication wristwatch of the brand and one of the world’s most complicated timepieces at that time. It is definitely an extremely exclusive timepieces with production limited to just 50 watches a year. Consisting of 659 mechanical parts, it displays, a perpetual calendar for the next 500 years and a perpetual moon phase display made of polished goldstone, this watch is a horological tour de force. The minute repeating chime is exceptional, as the sapphire crystal has been freely suspended on a platinum membrane, amplifying the gong vibrations via the sound transmission pin. The project of this mastodon (of course considering the huge dimension of the watch) was commissioned to a team of watchmakers and engineers along with two young guys that would later become extremely known among passionate: Dominic Renaud and Giulio Papi. It took five years of developments to this team and 12 patents before officially present to the world this masterpiece at the Basel Fair in 1990. The lot here offered is a proud exponent of the reference 3770 and is numbered 4 in a limited edition of 50 pieces. The 42.5 mm platinum case of the present lot houses an automatic caliber with no less than 21 distinct functions: hour, minute and seconds displays, a moon phase, month, day and date displays. It also showed the year, decade, century and millennium. On top of this, it featured a rapid date advance, chronograph seconds hand, chronograph minute counter, chronograph hours counter, minute repeater, quarter repeater, hour repeater and the all-or-nothing piece in the repeater itself. Last but not least, we should not forget the automatic winding function and the perpetual calendar. The IWC Grande Complication proudly stood against the tide of quartz watches that were flooding the market, and is a timepiece that certainly helped bring back interest in fine, mechanical complicated movements. This example is offered with the original box, warranty, papers, extract and service.
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