ARE IWC REPLACEMENT PARTS STILL "ORIGINAL" PARTS ??

Hello,

It has been a long time since I posted, however great to see the IWC community is still so vibrant !

Hoping there may be some ideas regarding replacement parts during a service. In my opinion, if IWC replace a scratched glass for new, this is not seen as a bad thing by collectors, and there is every possibility that no-one would know as the glass is probably identical to the original. And does it matter - it is the same part, just installed at a different time ?

But what about the case ? IWC once replaced a case for me (at their expense as it was damaged during the service) and I was surprised when a collector friend frowned upon the change, as the watch was no longer "original". I understand this concept if the new part has been modified by IWC from the original spec (for example superlume hands instead of tritium) - but I do not see as an issue when the parts are simply on a different timeline.

Anyone experienced anything similar, or have an opinion ?

Thanks...

There were a lot of discussions about authenticity, original, genuine, replacement,after-market etc.
It is not useful to start the discussion from scratch.
Nearly all the watch company's, including IWC, make some parts themselves but many are bought from specialised company's which make only dials , hands, crytals, cases and sometimes complete movements. IWC bought from ETA, JLC and others complete movements which sometimes were modified, sometimes not.
Those who were this week in Schaffhausen at the collectors meeting have seen that currently IWC makes a lot of parts for the movements and many complete cases. This was different in the past and it changes over time. A problem arises if the parts for a watch of 10 years or older are needed. If these parts are out of stock and if they were bought from outside 10 years ago, IWC will order them once more at the same manufacturer. But now the possibility exists that the parts are slightly different compared to the "original" one from 10 years ago, simply because such manufacturer has to start a new batch with different tools and machines which have been upgraded in the meantime.
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

Many thanks for your comments Adrian - these make perfect sense.

I have located some earlier threads which also prove very helpful. Personal preference seems to be the name of the day - until dealers get involved !