IWC Ingenieur Automatic Ref. IW322701

Anti-magnetic watches. According to Deutsche Industrie Norm (DIN) 8309 a watch must be able to operate with a maximum deviation of 30 seconds per day when exposed to resist a magnetic field of 4,800 A/m (Ampere per meter). There are two ways of building a anti-magnetic watch:

The first way consists in building a watches with balance wheels, hairsprings. anchors, escape wheels and other parts of mechanism made of non-magnetic metals or alloys. The second way of making a watch non-magnetic is to house the entire movement into a case made of a highly conductive material. The movement is covered by an additional soft-iron clasp to prevent the forming of magnetic fields inside the watch itself.

Vacheron Constantin was among the first companies to experiment on the construction of a anti-magnetic watch. It took seventy years for Vacheron Constantin to finally build a anti-magnetic pocket watch in 1915. In 1989 IWC released a watch that could withstand 500,000 A/m, or more than 100x the industry specification. Tissot built the first anti-magnetic wristwatch in 1929. Vacheron Constantin, Patek Philippe, Omega and Jaeger LeCoultre released anti-magnetic watches in the past.

But this category of watches has had limited appeal, and today the only mechanical anti-magnetic watches in the market are the Rolex Milguass, IWC 's Ingenieur and Ball Engineer series. The Ball Engineer watches have rating from 4,800 A/m to 12,000 A/m, while the Rolex and IWC offering can withstand magnetic fields of up to 80,000 A/m.


IWC Ingenieur Automatic Ref. IW322701. The amazing IWC watch that could withstand a magnetic field of up to 500,000 A/m is no longer available having been drop from IWC's catalog in 1993. Instead we have IWC Ingenieur Automatic which uses a soft iron inner ring (Faraday Cage) to protect it from magnetic fields of up to 80,000 A/m. While this is unfortunate, you really cannot buy anything better, the Rolex Milguass having the same rating.

The IWC watch which was last updated 2005 uses the in-house manufactured IWC Calibre 80110 movement which produces 28,800 vibrations per hour (4Hz) with a 44 hour power reserve. The case is a fairy large 42.5mm in diameter and the case is water resistant up to 120 meters. The IWC Ingenieur Automatic uses a IWC design rotor to improve its resitance to shock.

Specifications are similar to its only real competition, the Rolex Milguass. Unlike Rolex's Milgauss watches, the IWC offering has a date display.

About IWC. IWC or the the "International Watch Co. Schaffhausen" was founded by an American engineer from Boston, Florentine Ariosto Jones, in Schaffhausen, Switzerland in the year 1868. IWC Schaffhausen is notable for being the only major Swiss watch factory located in eastern Switzerland, as the majority of the well-known Swiss watch manufacturers are located in western Switzerland.