IWC Yacht Club - Warm Silver Sunburst - Stingray Strap - Box Included - Circa 1970s

In 1967 the good life happened on the water. Fiberglass hulls had made sailboats affordable to families that had never expected to own one, and new marinas opened every season to hold them. The weekends filled with white sails. Spray came over the bow in the afternoon, and the same evening ended in a dinner jacket at the clubhouse. A watch worn through that whole day had to take both.

The International Watch Company had built watches on the banks of the Rhine since 1868, in Schaffhausen, far from the watchmaking valleys along the French border. In 1967 it brought a new watch to the Basel fair and named it the Yacht Club, a sporting sibling to its Ingenieur, made for the life around the water rather than under it. The company sealed its own automatic inside a steel case built against spray and weather.

That automatic is the caliber 8541B, the last of the self-winding family IWC spent fifteen years developing. Albert Pellaton designed its winding, a pawl system that gathers power from the wrist whichever way it moves. A day under sail winds it. The whole movement hangs inside the case on springs, ringed in rubber. A slam of the hull arrives at the steel and goes no further.

The dial above that movement is a silver sunburst with a warm glow, and it moves with the light. Steel batons inlaid with black stand at the hours, and the matching hands carry slim lines of lume gone cream. The date sits in a steel frame at three, and Yacht Club is written in light script above the six. Under a loupe a few small specks of age show at the dial's edge, and nothing more.

The steel case keeps the barrel shape of the first Yacht Clubs, and its horned lugs are still crisp. The case shows wear on the caseback and the backs of the lugs, with a few scratches on the front as well. Please see the pictures. Overall the condition of this watch is very good considering it is over fifty years old, and this example dates to around 1970.

A strap of black stingray with a slight bluish tint runs through those lugs, its pebbled hide catching light the way water does at night, and it closes through a steel buckle signed IWC. The seller I bought it from reported a service within the last few years, though I have not serviced it myself. The watch runs great.

Comes with an original IWC white crackle box and outer sleeve.

Terms: Please review all photos carefully as they are a part of the listing. This is a vintage timepiece. Accuracy, power reserve, and water resistance are not guaranteed. Vintage watches may require periodic service. Performance can vary with wear, temperature, and position.

All sales final.