Cal. 89XXX observations and questions

Hello all!
I own two IWC watches that house cal. 89XXX (89360 and 89361). I have been really excited about IWC's commitment to build on their existing in-house movement collection and love to see how they compete with the other tried and tested movements as well as how they develop new and interesting complications. I am particularly interested in cal. 89XXX as the ETA/Valjoux 77XX has been the favorite of many chronograph users and I do like to use the chronograph function of some of my watches. It seems as though IWC's calibre has been evolving but it is interesting how it has evolved. Most notably has been how the chronograph has been simplified on the simpler watches and stayed more the same on the more complicated. The perpetual day-date watches in the IWC collection utilizing the 89XXX calibre - when looking at IWC photos - look to retain the "shock absorbing bridge" on the rotor whilst the non day-date versions of cal. 89XXX have moved to a less complicated and less jeweled version of the movement. The calibre 89365 used in the new pilot watch line seems to simplify the movement even more with the subtraction of the hour counter for the chronograph and also uses less jewels. I, personally, do have some improvements I would like to see on the in-house IWC chronograph, such as a larger or more clearly visible minute scale/counter on the chronograph (and my eyesight is pretty good)but would love to hear from the rest of you how you consider your experience with the 89XXX calibre from IWC.

Hi Ben,

I cannot state about the simplification you've mentioned. And I don't own a cal 89xxx.
The only thing I don't like on the new cal 89xxx Pilot's watches - except for the day-date - is the removal of the hour hand.

The "problem" with the reading precision of the minute counter is clearly that there have to be 60 minutes displayed in a very small subdial circle on the dial. That's why former chronographs only displayed 30 minutes in the minute counter subdial and the hour counter provided 2 steps for every hour. And if you look at the dial of these watches the subdial for the minute counter cannot be increased in size because it is already as large as possible.

My personal "improvemet" would be to simplify the day-date complication:
leave away the month and leap year complication which is very nice, but I really know the month and leap year, and show the day of week in big size, because I often forget that. That's what I especially like on the 7750 based models. That could be a "cheaper" version of the day-date model.

Tilo, I agree with you on the importance of the hour dial and the 'day'-date on a chrono. Infact, I would like to see other IWC families have the 'day'-date such as the Ingenieur and Portofino Hound-Wound Eight Days for example.