Can any IWC experts tell me why a cal. 852 movement, serial no. dating it to 1956, would be cased in a (18k) case, serial no. dating it to 1964-66? Seems a long way apart. And why would the inside caseback have only "International Watch Co", an 18k assay mark and a serial number? All the other ones I've seen have "Swiss" as well, and often an IWC crest. Might this watch have been cased outside of Switzerland and would this affect it's value? Thanks for any thoughts you might have.

 

Yes, and yes. From what you're describing it might be a South American locally made case. Can't say for sure without pictures though.

 

The fact it's an 18ct case is what's making me lean towards a South American case. Any Swiss made IWC case I've ever owned looked like this:







The stainless ones looked similar to what gator posted:

 

Thanks fellas for your input. I'm leaning towards it being a South American case too, which as I understand it would decrease its value significantly. I'm fairly sure that it's not a redial on close inspection of the seller's pictures. As the seller is a dealer (with whom I've had several successful transactions in the past), and as I'm trading a couple of watches to him, I don't want to identify him (or the watch in photos) until I've successfully resolved the issue.
I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Still wondering about this watch. We've determined that it has been re-cased in an IWC (under license, I guess) non-Swiss 18k case, about 8 years after the movement was produced. The dial is original, watch looks beautiful. Perhaps the original case was damaged or re-cased from a stainless case. Nonetheless I'm interested in how much the value of the watch would be diminished from its "normal selling price" because of the re-casing. Would you say 10%, 20%, 50% ? And the other question is - what would this do to its 'saleability'? Would it be a lot harder to sell in the future? These are guesstimations I know, but I don't want to be stuck in the future with a watch which has been a poor investment. Another one, I mean .
Any ideas?

 

It's not an investment at all because any experienced collector would pass on it, making it a hard sell to anyone but a n00b, and n00bs don't usually spend the money on a less famous (read: non-Rolex / non-Omega, etc) brand. I can't tell you how much less valuable it is though because there is a distinct lack of pictures in this thread.

 

I know, but nonetheless what you say makes sense to me. I think I just need a stern talking to.

 

The temptation of an original dial, and one of wristwatch history's greatest automatic movements, can be tempting at a personal "just for me" level.

But when it comes time to bail out...

You'll be adjusting your "give-away" price to ridiculously low figures.

 

Dang, how old is this thread? I usually hang out in vintage Omega section where the Connie/Speedy chat is constant!