243 IWC Outstanding and Limited Edition to 50 Pieces, Grande Complication, Minute Repeater, Perpetual Calendar, Chronograph Automatic Wristwatch in Platinum, Reference 3770, With Original IWC Wooden Box

Estimate: €50,000 –⁠ 100,000

Model: Grande Complication
Reference: 3770
Case Material: Platinum
Bracelet Material: Leather Strap
Year: 1991
Movement: Automatic
Caliber: 79091
Case N°: N°28/50, 2552028
Movement N°: 2435076
Dimensions: 42.5 mm
Signed: Dial, Movement and Case
Accessories: Original IWC Wooden Box

In 1985, amid the quartz crisis, IWC embarked on an ambitious journey to create its first grande complication wristwatch, resulting in one of the world’s most complicated timepieces: a wristwatch featuring a perpetual calendar, a chronograph, and a minute repeater. The project, a horological masterpiece, was spearheaded by a team of watchmakers and engineers, including two future luminaries in the watchmaking world: Dominic Renaud and Giulio Papi. It took five years and 12 patents for the team to develop this masterpiece, which was officially unveiled at the Basel Fair in 1990. The lot offered here is a distinguished example of reference 3770, numbered 28 in a limited edition of 50 pieces, manufactured in 1991, marking it as one of the earliest ever produced. The 42.5 mm platinum case houses an automatic caliber with no less than 18 distinct functions: hour, minute, and seconds displays, moon phase, month, day, and date displays, year, decade, century, and millennium indicators. Additionally, it features a rapid date advance, chronograph seconds hand, chronograph minute counter, chronograph hours counter, minute repeater, quarter repeater, hour repeater, and the all-or-nothing piece in the repeater itself. The IWC Grande Complication stood proudly against the tide of quartz watches flooding the market and played a crucial role in rekindling interest in fine, mechanically complicated movements.