Clash of the Titan[ium]s
(I have post a similar article on another watch forum some months ago... but since I'm new to the IWC forum, I would like to revise it and re-"publish" it here to share with you all)
I have two IWC watches with titanium casing and bracelet. They are both not the current model of their respective line. In fact, they have both been discontinued. Not sure how many of you already have them, but that should not stop me from writing a short posting about these watches, taking a closer look at them, and comparing them side-by-side. I love them both.
The two Ti IWC watches that I have are:
- Aquatimer Chronograph (IW371903)
- AMG Ingenieur Chronograph (IW372503)
Took some quick snapshots on the two watches side-by-side:
They are roughly of the same size, and made of similar materials (and even based on the same movement--well almost!).
Although they both share the same bracelet design, the bracelets are actually quite different. By the way, I must say that these bracelets are arguably one of the best designed bracelets out there, which are capable of having every single link added/removed simply by the use of a set of tool or two tooth-picks)
From this photo, you could see that the individual links on the Ingenieur (top) are much larger than those of the Aquatimer (bottom):
another shot (Ingenieur on the left, Aquatimer on the right):
As a result, there are more links on the Aquatimer than the Ingenieur.
This makes the Ingenieur having a much more "ruggedness" feeling to it.
The joints of the links are also slightly different.
The Ingenieur's (front) allow you to bend more than 45 degrees, whereas the Aquatimer's (back) do not:
With this difference, when I lay both of them on a table, they look like this:
When wore on my wrist, the Aquatimer surprisingly felt alot more relaxed and hugged around my wrists a little more comfortably than the Ingenieur.
This is what the two watches look like on my wrist:
Finally, some snapshots on the dials:
These two watches also have other differences and uniqueness. For those who are not familiar with them, allow me to share some of them with you.
One thing that sets the aquatimer apart from other brands of divers' watches is its inner, uni-directional-rotating bezel. It also emits very crisp "clicking" sound as you twist the 4 o'clock knob to rotate the inner-bezel.
Check out this guy's demonstration on youtube to see how this rotating bezel works: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H7PCMT6UFQ
As for the Ingenieur, one thing that makes it special is its anti-magnetic feature. With a soft-iron inner case inside the watch to serve as a "faraday cage," it helps the Ingenieur to withstand a degree of magnetic field. Besides the Ingenieur series, the Pilot series also have this anti-magnetic design.
My particular Ingenieur is an AMG edition, a design in collaboration with Mercedes Benz. Funny enough, if you have looked inside a Mercedes Benz AMG CLS 55, you will find its dashboard having a very familiar clock that looks just like the dial of my Ingenieur (or at least the non-chrono version of it).
In the back of my Ingenieur, you will see its says "By IWC Exclusively For Mercedes-AMG" plus an AMG logo. Although I am more of an Audi-fan myself, I do not mind this at all.
Well, that's it. Hope you won't find it a mundane "been there, done that" post. Thanks for reading thus far. Hope you enjoy reading about two of my favorite watches.
