Is this an unbranded IWC Cal. 88?

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to identify a movement from an old Swiss school/educational watch.

I recently found a photo of an IWC Cal. 88 that looks almost unbelievably close to my movement. I compared them side by side, and the bridge shapes, screws, jewel positions, balance assembly, wheel layout and other small details appear to match almost exactly.

The main difference is that my movement has no IWC markings or other visible inscriptions.

I’m attaching photos of my movement along with the Cal. 88 I found for comparison.

Could the movement in my watch actually be an unbranded IWC Cal. 88, possibly one supplied for educational/watchmaking-school purposes?

I would really appreciate it if someone familiar with vintage IWC movements could compare the two and tell me whether this is genuinely a Cal. 88, or if there is another movement with the same construction.

Thank you!

Hi Kpgs,

sure, this is surely an IWC cal. 88 base movement. IWC was supplying parts or raw movements to watch making schools, where the watchmaking students built there final craftmanship exam from. Typically this movements don't have a movement number and don't have the typical IWC finishing. These so called „school watches“ have there own collectors community and are pretty rare. You can imagine that somebody would not give his personal exam work away easily. The number 591 on the movement must be the student identification number for the exam.

I have a caliber 89 watch from a watchmaking school in my collection.

br

Cromagnonman