New Spitfire 3878 - freezing with "flyback"

JRSHAN, strange.. but your description of your Spitfire's issues and purchase time is almost exactly the same as my story! I have not had mine sent back yet, as the AD seems to think there is nothing wrong with it and the service centre is quite far from where I live. Was there an explanation as to what caused the issue? Interesting that you mention the motion of the pushers feel better since mine is a bit 'clicky'. Since day to day time keeping is not affected and I rearly use the Chrono.. if the problem was not serious I'm hoping to keep it ticking on my wrist rather than in transport.

Dear WatchJunkie,
No explanation was given by the factory as to what was the original problem . They solved the matter by putting in a new movement.
I would strongly suggest you should send the watch back for warranty repair before the watch runs out of its warranty period. For the long term, you want the watch to work as it is meant to - as mine now does.
Good luck.

My apologies for the repeat comment above, did not realize that I actually started this thread last year ... Bummer

Just a speculation here from my side (as this watch is currently at the top of my list I'm ging through older references again):

The reports said that the fly-back function frezees the movement. I understood the movement of the watch, the time-keeping part, not the chronograph part. Which would mean to me that the break-in (does not settle-down sounds better ?) period could apply here as well.

Then again, it should still be investigated at the factory to
a/ confirm which part was blocked or was forcibly stopped and
b/ if this is the design problem or what exactly happens when the fly-back button is pressed.

The later one would be interesting to know also for the rest of us. And what happens in this moment with the clutch?

My Yacht Club Portuguese has the same problem but this happens very rarely. (1 out of 100 times approximately)
If it happens I have to just press the flyback button once again.
The next service fill fix it. Meanwhile I don't really care about it.

Happy to have found this post. Tomorrow I am sending back my Aquatimer Galapagos with same movement. Its the 3rd brand new watch im sending back in 6 weeks.. And iwc tells me they ve never heard a problem with this caliber.

All have had the freezing issue. The second one stayed frozen and never came back to life, even after pressing the flyback pusher several times.

Tigerdim, I actually demonstrated the issue on 2 display watches at the AD after all correspondence indicated that it was me, not the watch... Just get it replaced. Best of luck, my replacement is working just fine!

I do not encounter such issue on my CF3 which is also using movement 89365. Not sure in the future :S But did you realise this issue when you purchased the watch? Or it just happen not long ago?

IWC has finally agreed to give my money back as they havent been able to provide me a working watch after 3 attempts. They came close to admitting there is an issue with the caliber inside the Aquatimer Galapagos.

Im moving away from this model completely. The last model I got had been thoroughly tested for a week by a service centre before being handed over to me, yet still finished the same way.

Glad you got it resolved. Wish there would be some recognition of this issue from IWC before my current watch is out of warrentee.

I do not encounter such issue on my CF3 which is also using movement 89365. Not sure in the future :S But did you realise this issue when you purchased the watch? Or it just happen not long ago?[/QUOTE]

Zhenhui ... As with any new toy, you will find the flaws early if present. if the issue is present you will notice a deviation in your actual seconds hand every time you push a chrono button. My uneducated opinion is that the the 89365 chronograph complication is flawed.

Zhenhui ... As with any new toy, you will find the flaws early if present. if the issue is present you will notice a deviation in your actual seconds hand every time you push a chrono button. My uneducated opinion is that the the 89365 chronograph complication is flawed.
I noticed only very few times. But it happened with both my chronos with the 89361 Portuguese Yacht Club from 2010 or 2011 and once with my brand new 89365 Ingenieur Silberpfeil. But it is not reproducable. It normally works. That's why I'm not trying to get it fixed. And if the watch stops you just have to restart the chrono again with the start pusher. But for that you have to notice that it stopped.

Hi TILO, does it mean your normal SMALL SECOND HAND will reset when using flyback function OR the entire watch movement is freeze?

If it happens (very seldomly as I wrote) the entire movement is locked just like the crown is pulled. By pushing the chrono pusher once again the watch unlocks itself again and starts running normally again.

Hmm I see, so far I didn't experience such issue yet. The only issue I'd encounter was when I reset the Chrono , the Chrono Second Hand was jumping back to the center but not exactly pointing to 12" oclock sharp.

The first watch I sent back had this issue. The Chrono would reset anywhere between -10 and +10 seconds.

When I brought the watch back I pointed out to them that they had another watch in display where the seconds were clearly at -2 seconds from 0. The told me it was because they hadnt reset the chrono, but the minutes hand was clearly still at 0 which means it had been reset.

I have the chronograph classic with the 89361 calibre, but the problems are similar (maybe we should start a thread on this base of calibres?). I use the chronograph every day and about one time in fifty or so actuations, the time stops. I don't use the flyback function, but presumably the same thing would happen if I did. I'll explain below why this doesn't bother me so much.

First off, apart from this peccadillo, this is a fantastic chronograph with extremely tight tolerances (in fact, I suspect this is the origin of the problem above). Of course, it's a column wheel, so it shouldn't be surprising that the timekeeping hands don't jump when the chronograph is actuated. What is surprising, however, is that it's the only watch I own where the hands don't jump when the crown is pushed in (I like to have the second hands perfectly aligned with the minute hands, so this is a big deal for me).

Everything just feels very solid. Moreover, the hour and minute hands on the chronograph register are very well aligned (not perfectly, mind you), much more so than any of the Valjoux 7750 based chronographs, and even better than my 4130 calibre Daytona which for me, is the standard bearer. (Given this last fact, I'm surprised about additional complaints regarding hands not returning to zero on the chronograph register. Presumably, if it's consistently returning to the same point, it's an issue with the hands and not the movement.)

All this suggests to me that the gear tolerances are very small on this watch. Most watches have some wiggle room; presumably this is a design feature to allow for smooth operation. My 89361, on the other hand, runs like it's on rails. This is a great thing, but I wonder if it leads to the stopping problem that seems to be widespread; i.e., the watch operates on a knife edge and the chronograph actuation is a sufficient perturbation to stop it. I suspect this is a near universal problem, so won't return my watch, and instead just enjoy the up side to having such a "tightly wound" calibre. I hope that IWC can fix this in future iterations, though.

My AD explained to me that it is very important to push the reset or stop button with enough power and in 1 motion, to make it function properly. I tried it myself with a soft pus of the button and this resulted in a incomplete return of the chrono hands of the portuguese chrono classic.
Since i use a firm push on the button it has Always functioned correctly.