Polished lug bezels

Recently I have bought a Mark XVI Spitfire from 2006 and noticed the lug bezels are not polished. It does not bother me but wanted to find out about this deviation from the norm. From all the pictures and videos on YouTube about the Mark XVI Spitfire I have concluded that the lug bevels were normally polished. Only the Mark XV Spitfire (the earlier model) has unpolished lug bevels. What is your opinion on that? Was there a time when IWC released early models of the Mark XVI Spitfire (maybe made 2005 but sold 2006) which had unpolished lug bevels? Or is it possible that this polishing wears off after 15 years? At least the polishing on the case bezel (the one close to the crystal) is still intact and not worn off.

And here is an example of the same watch on the blog lugsandlume.com/the-iwc-mark-xvi-spitfire-one-of-the-more-unique-fliegers-out-there/

You can clearly see the polished lug bevels.

Aesthetically I find the unpolished lug bevels nicer and more casual looking / less of a dress watch look which I like more. But I'm interested in the historicity of this decoration.

It seems that the Mark Spitfire has been overpolished by someone who shouldn't have done this. The polishing that has been there for sure one day has been rubbed away.

What Tilo says is 200% correct, they 'polish-vanished'.

Groet, Bob

But the Mark Spitfire in question is not polished. In fact it has a matte finish on the lugs. Here is another picture of the same watch at a different angle. If it were over-polished would you not still see the lug bezels but just with a "wrong" finish? Instead you don't see the bezel-shape at all, as if it were not there in the first place.

I recommend a virtual or even better in Schaffhausen in place factory tour. One of the stations there is the case finishing department. Experts explain how it's done correctly.

I agree with my colleagues. Polishing to achieve a shiny finish requires expert skill as demonstrated by www.instagram.com/reel/Cwb7dAttFW_/?igshid=NzZhOTFlYzFmZQ==

If not done by such an expert, polishing results in lost metal and a matte or buff finish.

As you said " wrong" finish? Instead you don't see the bezel-shape at all, as if it were not there in the first place."

It has been removed.

Hello Mark,

Thank you for sharing this interesting video! Your explanation makes sense.

Is there a chance that this polished finish could have been worn off by clothes (ie. thick woolen jumper etc) after more than 15 years of using?

On all the lugs simultaneously and to the same degree?

Sorry, but I doubt it.

So then the most probable explanation is "over-polishing". Could over-polishing happen if someone tries to clean the watch too often with cleaning cloths? Then it would produce the polished look and the matte finish would almost disappear and then you don't see much difference between the polished lug bevels and the rest of the matte lugs as everything would appear more or less shiny?

@mattam has written:

So then the most probable explanation is "over-polishing". Could over-> polishing happen if someone tries to clean the watch too often with cleaning cloths? Then it would produce the polished look and the matte finish would almost disappear and then you don't see much difference between the polished lug bevels and the rest of the matte lugs as everything would appear more or less shiny?

Maybe after 30 years of cloth-cleaning for at least 16 hours a day you could achieve the same effect.

But honestly I doubt it.

That a cheap polisher-wannabe has done the work of a skilled case finishing expert is more likely the cause of a case that looks like this example.

I just visited the IWC boutique in Munich and had a chat there with a very helpful and friendly IWC person and he told me that it's perfectly normal that the contour of the chamfers on a used watch is not as sharp as on a new one. He said that in fact watches that come back from the IWC servicing often show slightly rounded chamfers - he calls it "polissage" - due to the normal way of polishing which is done by hand and will never be as sharp or defined when the watch leaves the factory. He said my watch is not over-polished or done by a "polisher-wannabe", it's a normal effect during the manual polishing process which always takes away some part of the material. I could decide to never let polish my watch by IWC when servicing. But then after years of accumulating dents and scratches the chamfers will also start looking less "defined" and sometimes heavy wear can be mistaken for polishing. So one way or another if I wear my watch frequently and don't keep it in a safe the sharpness of the chamfers will degrade. I found his reply very reassuring as opposed to some dismissive comments that I frequently read on this forum.

Cheers

I am glad you got an answer that you are happy with. At least you know that the watch originally had sharp, polished chamfers on the lugs, and that factors such as wear and polishing have degraded that original finish. Although these chamfers are done by hand at the manufacture, they are done in batches where the same finish is applied repeatedly to mutiple cases by the same person. This results in a very precise finish that barely differs from case to case. When the watch is repolished during service, the service polisher is not working with the same finish on the same case in a repeated fashion, and therefore it is more susceptible to a "less than uniform" finish for that particular watch. Along with repolishing, wear and tear certainly do take a toll on the fine finishing. I wouldn't count the comments here as dismissive; it is hard to see the details in your photo, but a loss of material was the chief factor, here, and it can only be speculated as to how that could have occured.

Hello Ben,

Thank you for your friendly reply, I appreciate this type of conversation much more. Here are some more photos I took. I tried to angle the lugs in such a way so that the chamfers catch more light and get more visible. Under certain light angle the chamfers are visible but the lugs around are not as perfectly matte as in a new watch (they are somehow semi-matte, show a little bit of half-shine) so sometimes the chamfers are difficult to see.

I changed the strap recently to a vintage looking one but it's the same watch of course:

Are these photos better? Can you judge the quality of polishing here?

Now I am glad too that you're happy with your watch as a used watch. It's the most important that you appreciate what you've got.

It's a quality of the IWC Boutique staff that they had an expert look and a serious explanation / clarification that the watch was initially delivered in the same finishing quality than every IWC watch and how it developped over time.

Enjoy your beautiful IWC. It's worth every appreciation.