2017 IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Chronograph

This is the first time since 2007 that models in the Da Vinci line, introduced in the 1980s, have been altered. The headline piece is a new Perpetual Calendar/Chronograph, the first combination of those two complications for the brand. The watch was inspired by the Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar from 1985, but with a more refined case and bezel.

The tonneau case, featured in the 2007 collection, has been abandoned in favor of round cases only. The shape is deemed important because of its link to the collection’s muse, Leonardo Da Vinci, the Renaissance inventor and artist who was obsessed with the aesthetic harmony of the perfect circle and the “golden ratio,” a formula for the most aesthetically pleasing proportions in any design.

The new IWC clone watch also includes a rare four-digit date window,  a signature feature of Da Vinci perpetual calendars. For anyone who owned one of these pieces in 1999, it made for a dramatic fin de siecle spectacle on the dial when all four date digits turned automatically to 2000 at the turn of the millennium. (While the last two digits turned independently from 9s to 0s, the first two moved together, from 19 to 20). The new Perpetual Calendar/Chronograph contains a new movement, Caliber 89630, a fusion of the brand’s existing chronograph Caliber 89, introduced in 1985, and the perpetual calendar Caliber 52610, which was modified to be combined with the 89 and to accommodate a new moon phase display – it had to be offset to accommodate the hands of the chronograph hour and minute totalizers, which occupy the center of the same subdial.

The moon phase is ultra-precise, with no need for adjustment for the next 577.5 years compared to the standard 122 years. The chronograph is equipped with a flyback function, and the blued, central chronograph seconds hand allows stopped times to be displayed with an accuracy of 1/4 second.