I recently aquired this late 1960s IWC with the 8541 movement. The inside of the caseback has the reference R802A, which seems to be one of the slightly less common case styles. I posted about it on the IWC forum, but thought I'd ask here too just to get a wider range of opinions.

I found this scan of the 1970 catalogue online, with the watch on the second page on the left having the reference 802 AD: nakahiro.parfait.ne.jp/catarog1970/moji/iwc1970.html

To my eyes, this image doesn't look quite like my watch (although someone on the IWC forum disagreed). The lugs look just a little longer and narrower and I can't see the chamfering (although it's difficult to tell from the poor resolution of the photo in the catalogue especially). I think it looks more like a lot of online pictures of other watches with the same R802A caseback number, such as this one: www.bonhams.com/auctions/20746/lot/146/

However, I have also found several images of watches previously for sale that seem to have exactly the same case design as mine, and they all have the R802A reference too. Interestingly, most are engraved as 25 year service
gifts for employees of the Swiss engineering firm Sulzer Brothers:

www.catawiki.com/en/l/46883813-iwc-r802a-men-1960-1969
www.catawiki.com/en/l/40805409-iwc-no-reserve-price-r802a- men-1970-1979
uhrforum.de/threads/iwc-automatic-ref-802a.307837/

So, if the images in the catalogue show a slightly different case style, does that mean that mine (and all of the engraved ones from Sulzer Bros.) have incorrect casebacks? But that wouldn't explain why the only pictures I can find online of cases that look like mine ALL have the 802 reference..

Is it possible that there were actually two slightly different case styles with the same reference? Or am I misinterpreting the picture in the catalogue and could it actually depict the same case as on my watch? Am I over-thinking it?

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P.S. I'm not worried about the applied IWC logo on the dial or the lack of it - that seems to be something that came and went in the late 1960s and at least one of the three watches linked above that look like mine has the logo.

 

To me, the catalog picture looks the same as your watch, it's just hard to see it clearly with the shadows and the blurry image. It would be helpful to post the photo, instead of the link, and better yet, put them side by side.

 

Ok, I'm happily out-voted then!

 

I suspect that the chamfered lugs were specific to the Sulzer special edition.

 

It's really difficult from the catalogue picture to be sure that the lugs aren't chamfered due to resolution and contrast. I can't see the chamfer on the bottom lugs in particular, but I've just realised that what I was seeing as a straight line at the base of the left-bottom lug is at least partially an optical illusion created by one of the green dots on the background, which looks like a shadow on the edge of the lug..

Is it known that special editions like this were made for Swiss companies?

 

Whatever expertise that I have in vintage IWC tends to be confined to the Ingenieur and Yacht Club models. However, I have seen many *regular* models such as the ref. 802 over many years of collecting, and cannot recall having seen those chamfered lugs more than a few times. So I assume that it was not typical of the regular production models.

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that IWC may have produced some special editions for some companies, but I have never researched the topic.