IWC Launches Two Ingenieur Automatic 50th Anniversary Limited Editions
The two new watches celebrate the debut of Gérald Genta’s Ingenieur SL, in 1976.
The Ingenieur from IWC was originally developed in the mid-1950s, and it was part of a post-war generation of antimagnetic watches designed for the use of engineers, scientists, and other professionals working around strong magnetic fields. This generation of watches included the Rolex Milgauss and the Omega Railmaster, and all three were direct descendants of the antimagnetic pilot’s watches which were developed during World War II. The original Ingenieur had a straightforward design in a round case, but in 1976, IWC did something unusual. That was the year that the Ingenieur SL was launched, in a 40mm x 12.5mm steel case, and with an integrated bracelet, designed by none other than Gérald Genta, the legendary designer behind the Patek Philippe Nautilus, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, and many others.
The original Ingenieur SL did not sell very well – it was a large, assertively proportioned technical watch at a time when the market preferred thinner timepieces, and was eventually discontinued in 1983, with fewer than 600 pieces produced. However, IWC revived several versions of the design, in 2005, and then again in 2013. Discontinued in 2017, the SL-based Ingenieur was relaunched in 2023, and today, two limited editions debut, in steel cases and two sizes.
The larger 40mm x 10.8mm model uses the in-house, 120 hour IWC caliber 32111, with a closed caseback and soft iron antimagnetic inner case. The smaller model is 35mm x 9.4mm and uses the Valfleurier supplied caliber 47110, with a 42 hour power reserve. The two limited editions share silver plated, vertically brushed dials which distinguish them from the existing 40mm automatic Ingenieurs introduced in 2023, and the 35mm models introduced in 2025. The 50th Anniversary branding’s very restrained – in addition to the vertically brushed silver dials, there’s only a discreet “50” underneath the lightning bolt logo.
Aside from the size difference, one way to tell the two limited editions apart is the view from the back; the 35mm model has an open caseback, while the 40mm model has a closed caseback, concealing the antimagnetic inner case.
IWC is celebrating the watch, but it’s also celebrating the man, and for the 50th Anniversary, IWC has produced a video documentary with Gérald Genta’s wife, Evelyn, and his daughter, Alexia. IWC says, “In the interview, Evelyne and Alexia Genta offer deeply personal insights into Gérald Genta’s character and creative process. They explain how he never truly saw himself as a watch designer, but rather as an artist who happened to find his medium in watchmaking. Nowhere is this philosophy more evident than in the Ingenieur. To Gérald Genta, it was never simply a watch, but a single sculptural object, conceived as one continuous form flowing seamlessly from the case to the bracelet and clasp. The fully integrated stainless steel bracelet was central to his vision of creating one harmonious whole – at a time when stainless steel was not yet regarded as a material worthy of luxury watchmaking.”
The technical side of making antimagnetic watches today depends largely on the use of silicon components and other amagnetic materials, rather than the use of soft iron inner cases. I think, however, there is something charmingly old-school about the latter, which was the standard for antimagnetic watches for many decades, and which preserves the use of traditional watchmaking materials. “Soft iron” is a term for an iron-nickel alloy, also known as mu-metal, and it works by providing a path of least resistance for magnetic field lines (the magnetic field lines, in other words, will flow through the soft iron inner case, and around the movement rather than through it. I suppose this is as good a time as any to note that such inner cases are not Faraday cages; a Faraday cage blocks electromagnetic waves, like radio waves, but not magnetic fields; a compass still works inside a Faraday cage).
You might say, then, that the soft iron inner case is a kind of period-correct technical solution to the problem of magnetic shielding in horology. Combined with the Genta-designed SL case and bracelet, it forms a direct and tangible connection to a unique period in the history of watchmaking, and the history of IWC.
The IWC Ingenieur Automatic 40 and 35 50th Anniversary Limited Editions: cases, stainless steel, 40mm x 10.8mm, 100 meter water resistance, with closed caseback and soft iron inner case; or 35mm x 9.4mm, 100 meter water resistance, with sapphire display back. Movements, IWC in-house caliber 32111, running at 28,800 vph in 21 jewels, with 120 hour power reserve for the 40mm model; the 35mm model uses caliber 47110, running at 28,800 vph, with a 42 hour power reserve. Both with integrated bracelets with butterfly folding clasps. Prices, $15,000 for the 40mm model, and $12,900 for the 35mm model.
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