Incoming: IWC Cal 89

With gratitude to OF---both the seller and those who helped me (at some length, both in threads and in PM) to sort out the details, here is the 1956 rose gold IWC cal. 89 I bought, which arrived yesterday. My lousy iphone pics exaggerate the hairline scratches (which happens when you take a 37mm watch and blow it up to 2000 pixels) and don't accurately capture the tone of the gold, which is more coppery-red than what you see here, at least on my monitor.

It's a fantastic dress watch in the perfect vintage-meets-contemporary size.

I've been strap-swapping---the brownish-taupe faux-gator I got for it is too thick, so I'm looking into some new options; in the meantime I found an old super-thin black leather and (not that you can easily tell in the pics) some curved spring bars I had sitting around, and I think this will work just fine until I get what I'm after. (It's a bit too dressy in this get-up, I think, but that won't stop me from wearing it with jeans.)

I suspect my wife is going to steal this one from me at some point.




And here it is with its (white) gold cousin (with rose gold accents, though!) lurking in the background---the Aqua Terra is 43mm. Switching between the two is pretty jarring, but the mind adjusts quickly: the IWC feels minute, but only for a moment, then it just melts into the wrist so sweetly; the AT feels gargantuan and so heavy, a sensation that takes a little longer to fade, but it does.





I think something in titanium is next on the list, as I piece together my "materials" themed collection. (My steel Seamaster diver is still out for service, but should be back next week.)

Cheers. It’s taken me years to sort out what I like—not momentarily but enduringly—and 37-39mm and quarter-Arabics are two big draws for me. Never thought I’d want to own anything in a yellow/red gold hue, but that’s grown on me a little and this watch is so modest it calls no attention to itself.

Congrats! Great pickup. I received one in trade many years ago.

Wonderful!
As for the strap, I would go for a classic dark brown lizard unpadded.

exactly what I’m looking for.

Beautiful dress watch. Check out Veblenist for a wonderful strap to pair with your beautiful IWC watch.

fantastic pick up, congrats! the case doesn't look super common and looks nice and oversized for vintage IWC too which is great. The cal 89 is a solid and fantastic movement too. I would also go a vintage lizard skin strap you can find them on eBay for a decent price

Could you imagine if they rereleased this in 38mm with those lugs?

Yeah when I was hands-on with one (with calipers too) I measured 36.5 or so, IIRC. 38mm would be another 100^2 mms or so of area, which would make for a more contemporary feel. Not that I’m complaining about the vintage proportions of mine!—it wears like a 37 for sure.

Inherited from my Dad....great watch!

Not to take anything away from an inherited watch that must have deep sentimental value, but I'm curious about the fonts on that dial... Surely a redial? (Probably not telling you anything you don't know. See this graphic.)

Paging @Tony C. and @Ron_W and @Dan S

If it's a redial, it wasn't done by me...and I've hade the watch over 50-years.

It’s an awesome watch and it’s from your dad—nothing else matters. I only wanted to point out the redial as a public service since folks (including me) tend to use forums like this as a reference when learning about and authenticating references. It’d be irresponsible not to acknowledge it, I think. Doesn’t matter how it affects value when it’s an item that’s priceless to the owner.