IWC Schaffhausen Tribute to Pallweber Limited Edition

IWC Schaffhausen presents three “IWC Tribute to Pallweber” limited edition wristwatches with jumping numerals created as part of the Jubilee collection, to celebrate the company’s 150th anniversary.

The company is incorporating a digital hours and minutes display in a wristwatch for the very first time. IWC started using this form of time display in pocket watches back in 1884.

The historic Pallweber pocket watches showed the hours and minutes in large numerals on rotating discs. Yet the innovative time display was ahead of its age: the watches were only a commercial success for a brief period before disappearing from the scene after a few years.

To mark its anniversary, IWC is recognising the scale of this pioneering exploit by Schaffhausen’s watchmakers with the IWC Tribute to Pallweber Edition “150 Years” (Ref. 5050).

As a reference to the design of the historic Pallweber watches and a tribute to F. A. Jones – the American watchmaker who founded IWC – the windows of the digital display are labelled as “Hours” and “Minutes”.

A total of 25 watches will be made in platinum, 250 in red gold and 500 in stainless steel:

• Platinum, white dial with lacquered finish, blue display discs, blued seconds hand (Ref. IW505001)
• 18-carat red gold, white dial with lacquered finish, white display discs, blued seconds hand (Ref. IW505002)
• Stainless steel, blue dial with lacquered finish, white display discs, rhodium plated seconds hand (Ref. IW505003)

When creating the IWC-manufactured 94200 calibre, the watch designers developed a new solution for the technically sophisticated digital display (patent pending).

While toothed cogs moved the discs in the historic Pallweber pocket watches, the impulse that advances the single-minute disc is now supplied by a separate wheel train with a barrel of its own. A release mechanism that establishes a connection to the watch’s main wheel train unlocks the train every 60 seconds and then immediately locks it again. After 10 minutes, the single-minute disc moves the 10-minute disc forward by one position.

Every 60th minute, the hour ring jumps to the next numeral. The fact that the flow of power in the main wheel train is uninfluenced by the separate wheel train in the display discs guarantees a precise rate and a high 60-hour power reserve.

Just like on the historic Pallweber pocket watches, the display discs are connected by a mechanical linkage with a star wheel (Maltese cross drive) and can be easily moved forwards or backwards using the crown.

Technical details

Model: IWC Tribute to Pallweber Edition “150 Years” Ref. IW505001 • IW505002 • IW505003

Functions
Large digital displays for hours and minutes
Small hacking seconds

Movement
IWC-manufactured calibre 94200
Mechanical movement Hand-wound
Frequency: 28,800 A/h | 4 Hz
Jewels: 50
Power reserve: 60 h
Winding: Hand-wound
Breguet spring
Jubilee medallion in 18-carat gold on back of movement

Case, dial and strap

• Ref. IW505001: Platinum case, white dial with lacquered finish, black printed indices and numerals, blue display discs, blued seconds hand, black alligator leather strap by Santoni
• Ref. IW505002: 18-carat red gold case, white dial with lacquered finish, black printed indices and numerals, white display discs, blued seconds hand, black alligator leather strap by Santoni
• Ref. IW505003: Stainless steel case, blue dial with lacquered finish, white printed indices and numerals, white display discs, rhodium-plated seconds hand, black alligator leather strap by Santoni

Glass: Sapphire, convex, anti-reflective coating on both sides
Water-resistant: 3 bar
Diameter: 45 mm
Height: 12 mm
See-through sapphire-glass back

Edition
Limited to 25 watches (Ref. IW505001)/250 watches (Ref. IW505002)/500 watches (Ref. IW505003)

• Know more about IWC Schaffhausen watch brand and its history.

• Discover more IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN watches (from 2011 to 2022).

• Discover IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN watches archives from 1990 to 2010.