By John Galt
With SIHH 2015 here IWC will be unveiling 12 new models and yes you read that correct 12 new watches! And one of my favourites is this Yacht Club Chronograph with its sporty with a hint of dress looks.
The stainless steel case has gone on a diet from the last model with its size being reduced from 45.4mm to 43.5mm, seemingly IWC want to meet the increasing requests and recent trend for slightly smaller case, I know that 2mm may not seem a lot but I think it will lose some of its presence with the smaller size but until I get my hands on it at Baselworld this year I won’t be able to be tell for certain. The dial is a new slate coloured with sunburst finish and very well thought out with great legibility with both hands and indices coated in Super-Luminova, the silver hour markers are surrounded by a railway minute circle.
The subdial situated at 12 O’Clock shows the chronograph function with timing up to 12 hours on two hands one for minutes and one for hours on the same dial so not to clutter the dial with too many sub-dials. To keep the symmetry of the piece the only other sub dial is at 6 O’Clock displaying chronograph seconds, with a date window at 3pm. The flyback seconds hand is red and jumps of the dial giving a nice sporty look to the piece, but I can’t help but think there is a definite dress feel to this with its sunburst dial coupled with stainless steel.
Turning the piece over you are greeted with an exhibition case back, beating away behind it is the IWC manufactured self-winding movement 89361-calibre offering an impressive 68 hours power reserve, the piece is completed by a newly designed black rubber strap with buckle. The water resistance is 60 meters.
On release there will be three versions available:
Stainless steel with slate coloured sunburst finish dial (ref. IW390503), stainless steel with silver-plated dial (ref. IW390501) and rose gold with silver-plated dial (ref. IW390502).
Conclusion
I liked the original yacht club with its big presence and sporty feel, but this new release I’m not sure of, now it looks like it has been on a diet. The look has changed in my opinion from big sporty watch to now feeling like a hybrid of sporty and dressy, less is still most definitely not more with this piece. For more info, please visit iwc.com
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John Galt – Contributing Editor
John Galt caught the horology bug 4 years ago on his first visit to a London watch show and has snowballed since; John has become an avid writer and blogger of timepieces of all kinds, from everyday timepieces to modern Luxury Haute Horology, his favorite brands being HYT and Greubel Forsey that push the bounders of modern watch-making. John keeps a keen interest in the UK watch scene with their many emerging brands and timepiece’s. John Galt currently contributes watch related articles for online publications in the UK and USA. You can follow John on Twitter @johng73 Read his articles here.
