Lot Essay
The IWC Ingenieur SL “Jumbo”, ref. 1832 In the 1970s, the acclaimed Geneva watch designer Gerald Genta redesigned the Ingenieur from IWC Schaffhausen. Today, the Ingenieur SL ranks as one of his most important creations, alongside the Royal Oak from Audemars Piguet and the Nautilus from Patek Philippe. It perfectly embodies his vision of a robust yet elegant steel sports watch. The Ingenieur SL (ref. 1832) was launched in 1976 for the steep price of more than 2000 Swiss francs. Nicknamed “Jumbo” because of its impressive size, it soon became the flagship of IWC’s SL collection, which included various models with cases and bracelets made of steel. The automatic calibre 8541 was mounted on rubber buffers and thus protected from shocks and impacts. At the same time, the soft iron inner case effectively shielded the movement from magnetic fields of up to 80,000 A/m.