An 866 Ingenieur sliced in two

Dear community,

I would be happy to hear your opinions regarding that very special 866.

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The seller says less than 10 exist, and that was made by IWC for obviously educational purposes.

Now it costs a pretty penny, especially for a watch you can't wear. And for the price asked you could get a nice "full" vintage 866 Ingy. But wouldn't it be fun to have such a special watch in your collection?
Would I be tempted to buy an automatic for three figures and slice it? Probably no.
What are your thoughts? Would anyone here buy such a "watch"? If yes, for what reasons?

Hi there,

The 866 is definitely one of my true favourites. For a watch you can actually wear it is absolutely worth its price.

Personally I wouldn't pay much for this "special one", definitely not in the price range usually asked for Inge 866. You couldn't even use it for spares, not even the crown since it is not correct (except perhaps buying it for the spring bar ;-)

Just my 2 cents.

Best
/Anders

It would probably have been wiser to purchase it when it was 1/6th of the price of an 866...

ppgrig...how do you reach the conclusion the item was very special?????

@oneredtrim: Special would express here the same connotation as curious, or uncommon. How often have we seen 5/6th of an Ingenieur? In my 10 years collecting I have seen very strange stuff, but here it's a premiere :-). I wouldn't buy it, even for a small price. The frustration would be too intense. Unless I already had other 866 not sliced.

ahh...i see what you mean now by 'very special'...if someone had executed a series of five and filled them with dog-poo they'd be very very special (curious and uncommon).

I'm not sure if the sample is a premiere or not, the pair in the box together might be but not sure about any of the single lots (you might discover a 3 legged 810 kicking around if you're actively chasing such lots..don't give a lot of money for it though, the owners been looking for a victim for 6 years that i know of)

I simply cannot believe that this item has been "made" for educational purposes by IWC Schaffhausen or any retailer or AD nor for getting a school watch. A section made at the insert of the crown stem, would be more logical.
Detailed schematic drawings and seperate parts would have been much more instructive , also 60 years ago, when plastic models were not around yet. To ask considerable money for such item is outrageous.
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

Estimated worth to me....Zero.

Got to agree with the good fellows here - would not pay a cent for it!

But, under my moto of "you can't save them all" and simply because the look on Alan's face would be priceless to me - I'd probably spend an arm and a leg on this "full restoration" job - if that thing fell into my lap!

Exactly my thoughts.

While I agree that it is significantly overpriced, I disagree with others on this thread on two issues.

First, I am virtually certain that it was produced by IWC, and that it was either used by retailers and/or sales reps.

Secondly, it does indeed have value to some collectors, though a fraction of the current asking price.

Regards,

Tony C.

I'd just Photoshop the missing piece of the pie and the proper crown and call it a day. Even Mark would stay away from this one. LOL

Watches evoke emotions, certainly with us here at this forum. We like them, we take care of them, we sometimes even say that we love them. They give us such great feelings, they even make us become friends, watches being a perfect starting point for it.

We appreciate the intricate mechanism of the watch, are aware how much effort is put into our pride and joy on our wrist. And then we see this. The watch not only isn't going to function ever again, a deliberate amputation has been the cause for this. I don't care for any explanation about the reason to do so, how educational this could be. Not only wouldn't I pay one penny for this poor little thing, I find the perpetrator should be punished for watch murder. He really should learn that you just don't do such a terrible act, that you hurt a lot of watch lover's souls.

Kind regards,
Paul

I suspect it was made for marketing purposes. Leica still produce £3,500 lenses sawn in half to show off the technical brilliance and justify why they are so expensive. At least Leica gets two promotional items from each lens. I wonder what happened to the other one-sixth of the 866?

I found the whole dial sans the date complication; who can find the whole movement. Then, we can give it to 8541 and make a new one.

Great try Bill,

Don't try to fool anyone, it's not only about the dial you know ;-)
And if it was - a tripple-6-dial wouldn't make the trick in this case. LOL!

/Anders

Indeed Anders, Bill's 666 dial wouldn't work :-)

What about the 1/6th? Probably on another auction platform. The seller must think, "but hey, they are now almost two watches, let's make it twice its original worth"

The watch just appeared on ebay, with a starting price of -wait for this- 4.500,- EUR. Now lets see, if someone is crazy enough to place a bid.

-Again I am sorry to edit this post as the forum rules do not allow links to auctions. I hope you will understand.- Tonny, moderator.

Hi Bill,

I am very interested in your 666A dial. Can you tell me a bit about it? Was it on a cal 852 watch? Approximate age?

Most curious about the lettering style (assuming it's genuine) which seems very different than that in most of the 666's I've seen.

thanks,

Todd

p.s. Am I correct in assuming that this dial is made of brass and has feet that are a tad longer than a 666AD dial to accommodate the mu-metal plate which sat between dial and movement?