Hearts of Steel
Sometime ago I wrote a post, entitled "Clash of the Titans," about two of my titanium IWC watches. Recently someone has been asking about the steel Ingenieur and Aquatimer 2000 in another forum, which prompted me to write a sequel to my original post ('Clash of the Titans'...). I shall call it "Hearts of Steel". I posted it in another watch discussion forum before... but would like to post it again here for you to critique.
Since I was comparing the chronograph versions of the titanium Ingenieur and Aquatimer in my last post, I thought it would be interesting to spend a little time looking at a stainless steel Ingenieur and Aquatimer.
So, without much ado, let's look at the watches:
The stainless steel Ingenieur that I have is the IW3227-01.
It encompasses everything you would expect from a modern-day Ingenieur watch: shock-resistant movement, anti-magnetic soft-iron cage, Pellaton-winding system, etc. All in all, nothing fancy but very functional. The movement (Calibre 80110) is IWC-designed, which is now the most affordable (if you will) IWC in-house automatic movement.
Below is a photo of this movement:
(source: www.p178host.com/iwcgallery/Ingenieur2005/Cal_80110.jpg)
This exact model of IWC Ingenieur has already been discontinued, and has since been replaced by its larger-dial successors, the Mission Earth series of Ingenieur watches (the Mission Earth dials are of 46mmin size vs. 42.5mm of this featured Ingenieur's).
The Aquatimer 2000 is the current model of Aquatimer.
Its model number is IW3568-09, which has a water-resistant rating of 2000m.
Suffice to say, it should be a trusted companion for the majority of divers out there.
Unlike the Ingenieur, it does not come with an in-house movement.
Instead, it uses a proven, tried-and-true ETA 2982 (IWC refers to it as Calibre 30110).
When the current series of Aquatimer first came out, they received some unfair criticisms.
Many people (even IWC fans) came out to say that they despised the look of the new series.
Some were even harsh enough to argue that the new Aquatimers resemble Seiko diver's watches.
I too had that feeling at first, and paid little attention to the series.
However, after looking at one for a while, and trying it on at an AD, I simply could not put it down. It is causal, yet has a certain elegance and "aura" to it (aura due to the bright and colorful lume?? :-> ).
Many hated it for its external uni-directional rotating bezel (the previous Aquatimers all have internal rotating bezel).
One will soon notice, however, because of this external bezel, the current series of Aquatimer can now enjoy a much better, much more visible lume that glows much nicer in the dark.
The lume is now protected/covered by a piece of crystal.
I am not a deep-sea diver myself. However, I suspect this new bezel design is for a reason (maybe more than one).
My guesses are:
1) the rotating bezel can be rotated much more easily (by a diver wearing a pair of diver's gloves);
2) obviously the lume is now much more visible when is viewed deep in the sea than before. Had IWC attempted to keep this much bigger bezel-lume inside the dial, the watch may not look elegant at all.
Of course, these are just my speculations. Perhaps I was all wrong, and IWC just designed them this way to make them look cool. Either way is fine with me.
The following photo shows both the Ingenieur and the Aquatimer exposing to the sunlight for the same amount of time, and then being placed in a darker place to show the luminance of their lume:
Besides the attractive lume, the latest Aquatimer series also have another very useful features to divers.
It has a technology licensed from Cartier, but designed and implemented by IWC, called "Bracelet Quick-Change system".
The way this system works, is that there is a latch on both ends of the bracelets.
Once this latch is pressed and the bracelet is pulled, the bracelet will get detached instantly!
The following photo shows the little latch: 
This shows the watch after its bracelet has been detached:
Check out this video on youtube, in which a guy demonstrates how easy and quick it is to use the Bracelet Quick-Change system:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEEWSWb56TI
With this system, you can detach the bracelet and replace it with a rubber strap in just a few seconds.
For the hard-core divers, IWC even sells a longer strap for those who need to wear it outside of their diving suit.
Both the Ingenieur's bracelet and that of the Aquatimer share very similar designs, with some subtle differences.
They have these in common:
1) both are stainless steel bracelet with folding buckle (can't you guess already?)
2) both have the IWC nice design, which allows you to remove or add any link (or half-link) with a simple tool (or two tooth-picks).
See the photo below:
(can't really tell which is which, eh? the one closer to you is the Ingenieur, whereas the one farther away from you is the Aquatimer. See the little latch as a hint).
These are where they differ:
1) The Aquatimer (probably being a newer model) has the inside of its folding buckle decorated.
See the photo below:
(Aquatimer is on the right)
2) The inner links of the bracelets are different. The Ingenieur's inner links "stick out" more, while the Aquatimer's "stay inside" the bracelet. Not sure why they are different in this way... perhaps the Aquatimer bracelet is designed such that its shiny inner links won't get scratched as easily? Anyway... whatever the reason behind it, it is designed this way. See if you can tell by looking at this photo:
3) the entire Ingenieur bracelet is brushed, while the aquatimer's outer and inner links are treated differently: the outer links are brushed, while the inner ones are mirror-polished.
These photos let you see the differences:
(the Ingenieur's)
(the aquatimer's)
Can't tell how mirror-polished the aquatimer bracelet is? have a look at these photos:
(aquatimer. See how the inner links reflect the pattern of the cushion while the outer links do not?)
(just for comparison's sake... this is what the Ingenieur looks like being placed on the same cushion)
The mirror-polished inner links give the Aquatimer bracelet its character.
However, this design also has a minor nuisance--the mirror-polished links are finger-print magnets!
Both watches, and their bracelets are nicely finished--something that you can be assured of from IWC.
some photos to (hopefully) prove my point:
While the Ingenieur's crystal is definitely flat, the Aquatimer's is convexed.
Because of its convexed crystal, older Aquatimer's hands may appear to be bent due to refraction.
This "bending" visual problem is not as severe on the newer Aquatimers.
If you look at the watches from an angle, you will see the differences of their crystal:
(Aquatimer on top--dial hardly visible, Ingenieur at the bottom)
You can view the dial clearly even at an angle on the Ingenieur, whereas you cannot with the Aquatimer:
These photos show their thickness on my wrist:
(aquatimer)
(Ingenieur)
The Ingenieur's dial uses a lot of rhodium-plating, making it looks sharp yet subtle.
The Aquatimer extensive uses of lume makes it more casual, but also very smart-looking:
Please don't get me wrong.
Although I talk mostly about the Aquatimer, I do not necessarily favor one watch over the other.
In fact, I love them both.
Here are some more photos of the watches:
(both watches... vis-a-vis)
so... which one do you prefer?
