IWC, Doppelchronograph, Split, Ref. 3711.

A very fine, water-resistant, self-winding, 18 karat gold wristwatch with round button fly-back split-seconds chronograph, three registers, day and date, circa the 1990s.

Case: Two-body, polished and brushed, concave lugs, stepped bezel, screwed-down case back and crown, push-button at 10 is for the split-seconds chronograph function, curved sapphire crystal. Original, signed IWC buckle.

Dial: Black with gold Arabic numerals and luminous indexes, outer 1/5th seconds track with 5-minute/seconds Arabic markers, apertures for the date and the day, subsidiary dials for the seconds, 12-hour, and 30-minute registers. Luminous gold baton hands. Signed IWC.

Movement: Caliber 79230, rhodium-plated, 29 jewels, straight-line lever escapement, monometallic balance, self-compensating fl at balance spring, shock absorber, index regulator, hack mechanism. Signed IWC.

Condition: The case is in excellent condition with some light scratches on the case back. Dial is spotless with original hands and German date wheel. Original buckle. IWC box but no papers.

Ref.: 3711.

Serial: 2555XXX

Diameter 42mm, thickness 16mm.

Accompanied by non-original, fitted box, without papers.

More about IWC:

The Doppelchronograph's split-seconds complication was implemented in the early 1990s.  This technically challenging complication, which had been unseen for decades, was recreated by Austrian watchmaker, Richard Habring, who was in house at IWC at the time. 

This ingenious design showed that the rebirth of watchmaking was happening not only in the upper-echelon of watch manufactures, but also in smaller watchmaking companies throughout Switzerland.  It also came at an important time for IWC, when it was splitting from Porsche and was eager to introduce the pilot collection alongside the Portofino and Da Vinci collections.