IWC’s Da Vinci watch collection has always been appreciated by watch connoisseurs and IWC fanatics in particular, but it seemed to play the proverbial second fiddle to the wildly popular watches in other IWC collection such as the Portuguese and Pilot’s Watch Classic families. With this in mind, in 2007 IWC gave the Da Vinci collection a major renovation. Gone was the smoothly sculpted case of the original models, replaced by an extremely intricately finished and complex tortue design.

The star of this re-invigorated IWC collection, is the extremely impressive Da Vinci Chronograph. Measuring an imposing 43 X 51mm, this watch utilizes an ingenious IWC in-house automatic movement, which employs the acclaimed pawl-based Pellaton winding mechanism and a novel chronograph that places chronograph hours and minutes on single subdial. This enables the chronograph to serve as a secondary “watch” when necessary, and also results in an exceptionally elegant dial design. What is more, the movement maintains constant amplitude regardless of whether the chronograph is running or not.

This new IWC watch is a powerhouse among high luxury chronographs, and radiates power, sophistication, and true mechanical ingenuity. I fully expect it, and its stablemates, to greatly expand the popularity of the distinguished Da Vinci watch collection.