The IWC Grande Complication - When “Manufacture” is an overrated term

It’s common in some rarefied watch collecting circles to “dis” ETA movements—too common, too ubiquitous, too basic. Oh sure, the buzz goes, these movements are extremely reliable, but they just “aren’t very interesting”. I’ll admit, I’ve been guilty of a quite a bit of such movement snobbery myself. However, IWC gives me a poignant argument that such a viewpoint really doesn’t have a whole lot of merit.

One of the world’s most amazing watches, the IWC Grande Complication, features an extraordinarily complex self-winding movement that has a perpetual calendar which is mechanically programmed for 500 years (including four-digit century indication) and moon phases, a minute repeater and a chronograph. Boasting 659 individual parts, this is one of the most staggering complicated wristwatches in current production. Care to guess what’s inside? That’s right–ETA base technology. Of course, IWC has rebuilt, refined, and elaborated it to the nth degree, but the fact remains that the fundamental structure chosen for this masterpiece came from a source which many watch connoisseurs might find surprising. When you handle this amazing timepiece, and realize exactly how much mechanical brilliance is in it, you really can’t feel anything but admiration (and lusty desire for ownership!). Make no mistake, the fact that it is based upon an outside ebauche doesn’t make it common by any stretch of the imagination–IWC is only able to produce a small handful per year.

The IWC Grande Complication is just one example reminding us that perhaps more important than who makes the movement inside a mechanical watch, is the innovation and quality that a certain watch demonstrates.