Living With a Vintage Collection Ingenieur Laureus

I've now worn my new Vintage Ingenieur pretty consistently for the last 5 days or so and have some preliminary observations.

It's been very accurate -- gaining perhaps 1 second a day.

It's very comfortable.

It's a very handsome watch with great wrist presence. It's a pleasure to look at.

It is a dressier watch then I normally wear now that I'm a thoroughly retired suburbanite. Although I haven't fully adopted the local style of dress, it's been a few years since I've worn a tie. But I don't find it too dressy for town wear.

I have noticed a very slight misalignment of the hands. On the hour, the hour hand is perhaps 0.25mm short of the center of the hour marker. And the date kicks over at about 30 seconds after midnight. I wonder if that is related to the misalignment of the hands.

The midnight blue of the dial is just beautiful. I love the watch an enjoy wearing it.

I do wonder if the slight misalignment of the hands is within normal limits or not. I'm toying with the notion of having it attended to now. Or I might live with it a bit. Any thoughts?

Frank,

Dates on almost all mechanical watches don't change exactly at midnight. That's not considered a problem and unrelated to the hand issue.

On the hour hand not being perfectly aligned, it's difficult to get hour/minute/seconds perfectly in synch but this can be done slightly better. Personally, I would have it "fixed" when the watch is serviced generally. I know a lot of people wait until right before the warranty expires.

Your date clicking over 30 seconds after midnight is more a case of luck than judgement, I have some watches that are still changing at 00.30 hours although it does not bother me. As for your misalignment of hands try photographing it at 6.00 from directly overhead to verify your suspicions. Personally the time factor to adjust the hand will deprive you of its company for several weeks. I'd live with it until service time and then not even mention it as the watch is stripped for cleaning, oiling and reassembled.

Hi Frank,

congratulations on a beautiful watch.
If the date changes constantly 30 seconds after midnight that's perfect.
I had a misalignment on my portugieser hour hand. In the beginning I didn't even notice. But then when I knew it was there it disturbed me more and more. I guesss you too, otherwise you wouldn't have asked.
It could be seen very clearly at 3, 6, 9 and especially 12 o'clock. After a few weeks I took the plunge and brought it to Schaffhausen. After 3 weeks I got it back in perfect condition and couldn't be happier with it.

Tilo

Thank you all, gentlemen.

I didn't find the 30 second delay in the kick over of the date to be troublesome, although on some of my watches it's more gradual. I was just interested in whether there was any relationship between the very minor misalignment and the 30 seconds.

A few years ago I had bought a Breguet and discovered a much more pronounced misalignment. That certainly did bother me, and I had it taken care of right away.

Here the misalignment is very minor and so far hasn't bothered me. As long as that's the case, I'm inclined to wait until (1) I have it serviced; or (2) it does start to bother me. And it's keeping such good time, I'm a little reluctant to do anything.

Frank, I think you have got it down to the correct call.

If after only five days of wrist time that watch is running at the accuracy it is; I for one would definitely not do something about a slight hand misalignment, at this time.

As you say, if it begins to bother you - then send it in. For now enjoy wearing that really handsome piece.

Best regards
Mark

It's a fantastic watch and I am so lucky to share one too.

+1 Andrew

Kevin

Hi Frank,

I had the same misalignment for the chrono sweeping second hand in my Portuguese Yacht Club, which after a few months aligned itself properly - so a breaking-in issue. my Portuguese perpetual also needed a few months before moving into 0 to +6 sec 'tolerable specs', being about -1s or -2s before.

Thank you all for your comments. It's a wonderful watch.

One thing I've come to appreciate about IWC is the attention to detail of the case polishing. I notice it on the VC Ing and my Spitfires.

The bezels are polished. The sides of the case and top of the lugs are a brushed finish. And the outside upper edges of the lugs are polished. the effect is subtle but adds significant visual interest to the watch.

And I will be coming home from my visit to Las Vegas with a Santoni dark brown strap and deployment clasp to try on my VC Ing Laureus. I'll post photos in due course.