Closed | Important watches – Saturday 15 November 2014

The earliest construction drawings of the IWC Aquatimer to be found are from November 1966. That was the foundation to what would become a watch that wasn’t just waterproof to 200 metres but also had two crowns, whereof on of them controlled the rotatable inner ring which was placed inside the crystal.

The movement used was IWC’s well known automatic movement, developed by Albert Pellaton. The watch was shown to the public at the Basel fair in the spring 1967 but rumour has it that it might have been sold to retailers even earlier. It didn’t take long until the model felt a bit too classic and already two years after the launch came a new version that was more contemporary. It had a more modern shape and you could choose from a variety of colourful dials, perfect for the 1970’s customer.

The model lived on until 1979 and was made in a few new versions during the 1980’s although IWC was suffering from the publics lesser interest in mechanical watches. But a re-launch of the Aquatimer in the 1990’s was well received by enthusiasts when IWC launched their new model GST (Gold/Steel/Titanium). The Aquatimer is now its own line and is here to stay.