The Cheap IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calender Kurt Klaus Replica Watch was unveiled in the mid 1980s. It was an immediate success, even at a time when the ‘quartz crisis’ was in full effect. The IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Kurt Klaus was released as a celebration edition in 2007, with three variants. This article is concerned with IWC ref IW376202, in white gold: a luxury watch of which only 50 were ever made. (Incidentally, the platinum version of this watch was also released in just 50 editions. Kurt Klaus owns number 1).
It’s no coincidence that IWC gave the name of history’s greatest inventor to its most prestigious line of luxury watches. The Swiss city of Schaffhausen, in which IWC’s great creations are dreamed up, is forever linked to the little Italian town of Vinci. The first Da Vinci watches were unveiled by iwc da vinci perpetual calendar replica in the 1960s, a tribute to the great Leonardo and his way of looking at the world. And then, in an IWC-sponsored exhibition of the inventor’s work, a revelation happened. A design that had long been assumed to be a strange mechanism for propelling aircraft through the skies turned out to be a watch movement.
From one genius to another: Kurt Klaus, born in 1934. Klaus is renowned in the watchmaking world as the quiet polymath, the man whose unique vision of time is expressed in one of the most revolutionary complications ever built. Klaus’ perpetual calendar is an update, of course, of a complication that has been around forever: in clocks and pocket watches, and in wristwatches since at least 1929. But Klaus’ calendar does something no other can. It keeps perfect track of the calendar for 500 years.
That’s right. If you’re lucky enough to own an IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Kurt Klaus, you’ll only have to manually adjust the date every five centuries. Best leave instructions for your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandkids in your will, then.
The tonneau-shaped case is 51 mm from lug to lug, and 41 mm from caseband to crown. It’s waterproof to 30 m. If you’re crazy enough to wear it in a swimming pool, despite its leather bracelet and spectacularly delicate complication, you won’t affect the movement. The double-fold clasp is in white gold. The hour markers are applied gold, as are the hour and minute hands.
The IWC Da Vinci Replica Watch glass is sapphire crystal. Disappointingly (perhaps so no-one can steal the secrets of the 90 parts of Klaus’ perpetual calendar), there’s no exhibition caseback. Instead, you get a solid white gold back engraved with the image of Klaus himself. You also get the great man’s signature on the bottom right of the dial, mirroring, in design terms, the placement of the year counter.
The calendar counters show the phases of the moon, the month, the days of the week, and the year. The year is a digital display with the full four numbers (2013, not just 13). You’ll need them all if you live to 500, so you can see the passing of the centuries.
So, how does Kurt Klaus’ complication work? Well, the perpetual calendar operates just like any other mechanical calendar. It’s just better. An assortment of gears turn at varying rates, some every 24 hours (for the days), some every year, some every century. The moon phase indicator parcels out time into a sidereal month. The month indicator turns at the behest of a gear set that can correctly jump between 30, 31, and 28 day periods. The year indicator ‘knows’ when there’s a leap year.
When Kurt Klaus designed his calendar, he called it ‘Project Eternity’. And, on his 79th birthday in 2013, he expressed a wish to live to 100 years of age, with his mind as clear as ever. But here’s the thing. On the silver-grey dial of the Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar IW376202, Klaus has already achieved immortality. And his vision will live clearly for 500 years, or for as long as the watch is wound.
This luxury watch also has a chronograph. But for once, the operation of this most practical of complications is secondary to another, even more practical one. And one that’s as romantic and as alluring as horology itself. If you find one of these limited-edition pieces in good condition, snap it up. It’s an investment that will still be making jaws drop in the 26th century.
The romance of some watch complications lies in not knowing fully how they do what they do. I don’t want to understand how an IWC Replica Watch tracks five whole centuries without intervention from a human hand. I just want to see it do it. And I want to think about the fact that when it does, there isn’t a computer chip in sight. Just metal wheels, and springs, and counterweights. And all of it working perfectly, perpetually, for maybe eight whole generations.
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Bitte sehen 
