I've decided that in honor of a very special, very rare piece that this week's visit is going to be Ingenieur-specific...
If Kevin's post below didn't give it way, then the pic above ought to; think carbon fiber meets Ingenieur, and what do you wind up with? Exactly, the new Big Ingenieur Chronograph AMG (MSRP: $16K):
The watch is limited to a paltry 145 examples, with 45 reserved strictly for those who already own, or are in the process of ordering an AMG automobile. That's right, for those of us not fortunate enough to own one of Stuttgart's wundercars, there are only 100 of these beauties.
Basically, if you haven't ordered yours already, good luck, Mr. Van Winkle (my advice: get on the phone with the boutique NOW!).
So, what do these lucky sods wind up with? They wind up with a Big Ingenieur Chronograph with a carbon fiber dial, red second counter and a pretty awesome black and red leather strap. Individually, none the above sounds particularly impressive, but taken together you have a pretty special watch.
Under the hood lurks IWC's celebrated in-house cal. 89361 integrated flyback chronograph with a generous 68-hr power reserve:
(note the darker rotor)
As you can see from the writing on the display back, this piece celebrates AMG's 45th anniversary, hence the 45 pieces reserved for owners.
Of course, this isn't the first AMG/IWC collaboration -- we all remember the original titanium AMG Ingenieur and the white-dialed CLS 55 Ingenieur -- and it's doubtful that it will be the last. If you're fortunate enough to be able to see one in person, all I can say is that you're in for a treat.
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Okay, so let's say that the AMG isn't in the cards for you, what do you do? That's easy, you pick up the watch that forms the basis of the LE, the original Big Ingenieur Chronograph (ref. 3784; MSRP: $13.9K). In deference to Steve's request from last week, I've chosen the black dial to profile for you guys.
As you can see, it's simultaneously the same and yet different from the AMG (the dial, second counter and strap from the AMG do create a unique visual signature here):
It should come as no surprise that it wears the same:
So, what's my takeaway from this Big Inge Experience? First off, they're quite comfortable on the wrist; perfectly balanced and proportioned. Second, they don't wear as large as their 45.5mm diameter would suggest, which came as a surprise to me since my 3227-01 seems to wear larger than 42mm; something that's typical of angled cases (AP's Royal Oak is the same in this regard). Still, those with smaller wrists would do well to try one on in advance to be sure that the fit works. For my part, they work quite well.
The flagship was jumping when I arrived this afternoon, so initially I hung back with Nigel and let Patrick, Liana and Andre do their thing with the, er, you know... paying clients. When the smoke cleared a bit, I was fortunate to have Liana deal with me, which meant that in exchange for reminding her that it was Friday I got chocolate with my espresso:
Andre and Noreen also stopped over to say hi, and as with last time, I was able to have a chat with one of the aforementioned paying customers, who was considering the Pilot's Worldtimer. After Patrick was finished attending to him, the gentleman still needed some time to make his decision (prudent), but given the gleam I saw in his eye (one that's been known to lurk in mine), I have a feeling that he'll be back. ;-)
Regards,
Adam
PS - Oh, that "Ingenieur" you saw at the top of the page? It belongs to this:
- craniotes