3 yrs ago, I read somewhere; some 1 said a watch collector must collect one of the Gerald Genta designed watches during his glory days!
Gerald Genta, a most famous watch designer. Yes, he is, and no doubt because he is the only watch designer been paid by so many important swiss watch brands for his designs until he set up his own brand!
Started from designing dial, case, indexes, bracelet for the factory… then solely for omega, a lot of omega watch during the time was his creation and most ppl think he is the designer of the famous original omega constellation despite no concrete evidence.
Later he designed a some watches for universal geneve, golden shadow and Polerouter was one of his famous creation at the age of 23
After that, he set up his own design firm; he actually designed for many many watch brands… Over the years, some of his designs are remain those brand best sellers like AP royal oak, bulgari bulgari… series. Even his own name brand Gerald genta also created a lot of famous design like mickey mouse, Donald duck retrograde hand, octo design…. etc
Out of all his famous designs, below is my likes follow sequence of my personal preference in terms of esthetic aspect
AP- Royal Oak
IWC – Ingenieur
PP - Nautilus
VC - 222 (oversea)
If I’m rich enough, I’ll collect all the vintage pieces of above. How nice if I can afford to find and collect these big 4 genta designed watches
But sadly I’m not rich enough. So I decided to own one of these designs with modern tech… one day.
I almost buy the royal oak with Cal 3120 in few occasions because Royal Oak design is the best looking among the Gerald Genta designs. But I didn’t due to its size, just too small for my liking; I prefer to wear at least a 42mm watch.
PP Nautilus is not what like and the price is far from my affordability,
VC oversea designs just do not appeal me after all,
so my only choice is IWC Ingenieur.
2005 when IWC launched it Ingenieur series again after yrs of ceasing the production of this line, I was excited, especially the full steel 3227-01 look very close to its original design even not as close like royal oak and nautilus. But overall appearing is good and look better than the vintage one. Beating with IWC new in house movement; the retail price is very close to AP royal oak. I never give up for the idea of owning GG designed watch at that moment, even though I do think IWC price it too high.
I turn my attention to a pre owned 3227-01 instead. But it’s hard to come by, I was once saw it appear in one of the local pre owned watch shop website, but it’s gone in a flash.
Time flies, I on and off seen ppl offloading the iwc ingenieur titanium amg version, it goes as low as usd 2.Xk once. Grey market also selling it around 40+ discount. i almost pull the trigger few times on this as well, I didn’t, because I still love the steel version which to me closer to its original design and nothing fancy. I knew some mwf sifu here said the steel version is too heavy that’s why they like the titanium version. I love the AMG design as well actually, the black and light touch of red design is one of my favorite color combination. But I just prefer the more classic less sporty steel version and I do not mind heavy watch on my wrist after years of wearing big heavy watches!
The grey market price probably reflecting the poor sales of ingenieur actually, then IWC launched some LE ingenieur with ceramic bezel, see through case back and slightly bigger case. Ingenieur series is famous with its antimagnetic soft iron inner case, so I do not like the idea of see through caseback. i also do not like the ceramic bezel, otherwise the 44mm LE climate action ingeniuer is quite good looking.
2008, I wasn’t really shock to see IWC launch the bigger ingenieur and cease the production of 3227 both steel and titanium ingenieur. New ingenieur is up size to 46mm with crown guard, more colorful and no more sharp edges……. Just not my cup of tea and its gone too far from original design.
so, Out of sudden, the steel 3227-01 raises some attention among collectors, some 1 posted in forum saying he went all round EUROPE watch shop, but he can no longer find the steel ingenieur 3227-01. So when I thought i not going to own it again, i saw some 1 putting up for sales again on line…. Asking about 50% of its retail… while considering contacting the seller, suddenly I found our Malaysia famous online watch seller also posted a brand new in box for sale, so I immediately message them for price in RM. About rm2k more than the pre owned 1, I decided to buy this without risk of the internet purchase and buying pre owned.
Last week, during 1st round meeting, the bracelet adjustment tool missing, 2nd round, everything complete so I grabbed it.
Here you go, my iwc ingenieur 3227-01 photos and my 1st hand experience with it
Some photos (shoot in hurry…. No setting so pls forgive)
Packaging - Full set
The outer soft paper brown box
The hard paper white box
The watch box – black, probably laminated
IWC is always good with their packaging. It’s not as big and as good as the wood (produced in the city of IWC, Schaffhausen) made box in the 1st generation of IWC Portuguese I owned before, but its good.
Fullset - triple box(outer brown recycle paper box + white gross hard paper box + black color laminated watch box), multi language manual, packed polished cloth, bracelet resizing tool, warranty card and booklet.
Watch is well wrapped with plastic all round when I received it. Even the plastic is named.
The front
The overall appearance is good, it feel solid and good looking. It look big and like a big chunk of steel when you wear it due to it bracelet width near watch case, it is around 26mm. the dial is not as big. I doubt with this case and bracelet design, you can up size the case. New Ingenieur all come with strap right?
I’ll say This is a design you will like it when you look at it more often!
The dial finish with the indexes is top class. May not hv the solid polished steel like GS, but you know it is top top quality stuff when u sees it…. It’s an eye catcher, it just better looking than the amg version to me!
The AR coating is good especially under low light and indoor, you wont notice the crystal at all. But under the bright light, the blue coating is obvious at one angle, just like the my sinn u1, which I think my damasko is superior in this because of the angle of u can see the blue coating is very very small, but I wasn’t sure it is because of my damask dc67 dial is white!
The lume is very little filled on the hour index, hour & min hands and 15, 30, 45 and 60 minute marker. No complaint though because easy to reflect indexes help in low night. We just cant compare this with ball tritium in complete darkness!
The back
Solid case back, nothing fancy…. Just engraved with brand and series name and laser engraved with series number.
Side
The watch is quite tall, probably because of the inner soft iron case. The combination of polish and brush finish good. A lot of sharp edges compare with the new Ingenieur…. I prefer this!
Bracelet & Clasp
Not as solid and as heavy as omega and ball watch, but the design is comfort and it is matching the case well. But the user friendly bracelet adjusting design and the tool supplied is beyond expectation.
I adjusted it after flipping 15 second on the manual. Cool! Easy! 5 mins on my wrist
Crown
Screw in type. Finishing is top, easy to grip, no sharp edge. Screw in screw out is fine. I do wish it can be made bigger.
here are the specifications you can find online easily
Case – 42.5mm diameter 14.5 height st steel
Movement- cal 80110 iwc in house automatic movement with pellaton winding system, 44 hours power reserve
Antimagnetic -soft iron inner case
Dial – black textured guilloche
Date at 3
Crystal – AR coated sapphire
Water resistant to 120m
Bracelet – st steel with push button foldover clasp
Summary
This is not a watch for every1 taste. It’s a good watch that reflecting IWC philosophy, it engineered for men. It can follow me to office, meeting ppl, expose to sun and rain! I’m fully satisfied with the $ I spent for it, I’m also a proud owner of one of the Gerald Genta design.
Most photo linked from different website except those in my review part is my own.
