For those of you who know a little bit about IWC, you will know that the brand has six collections, including Pilot, Portofino, Engineer, Aquatimer and Da Vinci, but if you browse the brand's official website recently, you should notice a big event: the original six series have been cut into five series, and the one that has disappeared is the Da Vinci collection, which was originally popular with collectors.
IWC responded to the market demand by adjusting its product line, and after considering the balance of the overall development of the brand, it decided to put an end to Da Vinci's long-standing creation, and no new products will be launched in the future.
▲The hexagonal case Da Vinci watch, which first came out in 1969, is named after one of the three masters of the Renaissance.
Looking back at IWC's history of creating the Da Vinci collection, in 1969, in order to embody the spirit of innovation, the brand named a new watch collection after one of the three great masters of the Renaissance, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, the first Da Vinci model IW3501, with a hexagonal case with an integrated bracelet and Beta 21, a quartz movement created by the Swiss watch world, which was at first clearly a response to the quartz storm set off by the Japanese watchmaker.
▲ IWC's Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar, launched in 1985, has an internal movement that simplifies the adjustment method and can be completed through a single crown.
For example, in 1985, the Da Vinci series was equipped with the modified perpetual calendar calibre 79060 developed by Kurt Klaus, the brand's famous watchmaker, which solved the problems of complicated structure and complicated adjustment procedures of the traditional perpetual calendar in one fell swoop (the calendar information can be adjusted with a single crown), and became one of the masterpieces in the history of watchmaking.
▲The Da Vinci series was changed to a tonneau-shaped case in 2007.
The Da Vinci collection evolved from the late 1980s to the early 21st century, offering basic models such as the Da Vinci SL as well as other different complications such as chronographs and tourbillons. In 2007, IWC decided to reorganize the Da Vinci series, the most important change is the entire watch shape overhaul, from the round case to the tonneau-shaped case, the beginning of the work such as IW4523 is the basic three-hand model, and later there are also flyback chronograph functions such as IW3764 models have come out one after another, but the changed shell Da Vinci although it was a topic at the beginning, but the long-term development of the market's love for round cases is still the mainstream, so the tonneau-shaped Da Vinci to 2017 has undergone another major change, this time IWC changed the tonneau-shaped case back to a round case。
▲The Da Vinci series, which was remodeled again in 2017, changed the case back to the mainstream round case in the market.
The Da Vinci was once the perfect choice between Portugal and Portofino, with the IW3581, launched in 2018, as a 150th anniversary model with the 82200 calibre with the International Woodpecker winding system, making it the brand's most basic functional model. It can be seen that in the two years from 2017 to 2018, the brand also had high hopes for the Da Vinci collection, but the subsequent development may not be as expected.
▲The 82200 calibre equipped with IW3581 has a woodpecker winding system and a power reserve of 60 hours.
Although IWC will not disclose the reasons for the discontinuation of the Da Vinci series, there are probably no two major reasons for it, the first point is that it is still the era of sports watches, although Da Vinci has changed the case shape several times, but its dress watch style is still relatively strong, not to mention other brands, even in IWC itself, the Da Vinci series is usually ranked after other more sporty works such as pilots, marine timepieces and even engineers.
The other point is a bit contradictory to the reason for the original Da Vinci series facelift, originally it was considered to fill the gap between Portugal and Portofino series, but purely to make a choice of dress watches, the market has both the entry Portofino optional, and the flagship Portugal can be picked, and the Da Vinci sandwiched in the middle has become a little embarrassed, even if collectors think that it is an important piece of the puzzle for the collection of all nations, but for the average player, Da Vinci's positioning is just stuck in the middle, and after the development of thunder and rain in recent years, the world decided to bid farewell to the Da Vinci series and face the market with a more refined product line, so the next mention of the various series of the world, remember that the six series have been changed to five series, and Da Vinci has officially entered history.
Article source: World Watches
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