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My thoughs on IWC Ingenieur Laureus for Sport


watchman12345

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I've posted in a few threads about this watch, but wanted to put a few of my own thoughts together.

1) THE DEALER
Wanted this as soon as possible so I went with puretime. The experience was OK, but they didn't answer my QC questions and just shipped which wasn't great. Anyway I'm happy with the end product so can't complain really.

2) THE WATCH
This is the best replica I've gotten so far. It screams quality. The Case is very well made, and the crown and tube feel very good. I've never had a rep crown screw in so effortlessly. The crystal is domes sapphire with a very slight blue tint to the AR. It's marginal and the blue dial means it's pretty much unnoticable. Some people say the dome of the sapphire isn't enough and I think they might be correct. At times you can see the bend at the end of the hands (gen feature) which is probably because there is not a whole lot of doming going on.

The movement is a pearlage decorated "Asia 2836"... I think it is a Seagul ST2130 in reality. No complaints so far, after one quick attempt at regulating ir runs 6/7s fast per day. Could probably get it tighter if I wanted. The date changes exactly at 12 and changes with a rather noticeable "CLICK" that doesn't seem to happen on other ETA clones or indeed the gen itself. It feels fine to wind etc, but is not as smooth as other ETA clones I've had of the gens. The rotor is slightly noisier too but you'd really need your ear to the back to hear it.

The dial is really amazing. The blue colour and the way it changes with lighting is just beautiful. The lume dots are perfectly formed and the hands quite clean. Being super picky there is a few 1-2cm hairline marks but they need serious inspection with a loup to see. I couldn't photography them even with my DSLR. One of the hands has a slight mark at the edge too, but I must say the finish of the dial and hands beats any rep I've had hands down.

On the super-nit picking theme, the date is indeed about 1mm justified to the left. It's marginal but it is the case. Also the lume is poor. I doubt it's super-lume, but saying that the quantity applied is so small that even the gen doesn't glow well.

I've never held a gen IWC croc strap so I'm not in a great position to compare. The rep strap is nice, it's quite soft and well made, but I'd imagine still quite a bit away from the gen.


There has been a lot of talk about the price of this watch. Your talking for $310+ shipping for the Asian version. Serious money. Is it worth it? I think it is. I've seen the Explorer II QC shots and general impression and I'm pretty sure I'd prefer to pay $50 extra to eliminate some of the issues. The quality is superb. I'm a happy camper with this one. So much so I am tempted to get the swiss version, although I may wait and see if they do a V2 and dome the sapphire even more.

Pics; (iphone only unfortunately angry.gif)

11D8586C-0C82-458C-A2B4-08A24B7E4427-153
683E5DD0-DB44-4D21-8655-9316EDBAAC81-153
9BA0B2C6-D6CA-4E12-8A9E-1B0C290285D2-153
8960D0DD-F746-4E8C-8F10-5E92D9B7D52B-153
A292DC5C-540A-49DE-A01D-8158F1474BC1-153
8F54CC1C-248B-4FF1-899D-BF27463BDE8B-153
3788CFBE-E66F-4AE1-A72E-A0D5713841FE-608
31CAAF70-390E-4E30-8654-8AFA5E253794-608

Thanks for looking!

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Thanks for the review, watchman. iPhone or not, those are great shots of a beautiful rep. I have a request: Could you take a wristshot from the side, so I can see how high the case sits on the wrist? As you might guess, I'm on the fence on this one, but very close to falling off!

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Thanks a mill for the feedback and writeup watchman, this is on the top of to buy list for me atm. The dial just looks outstanding, I love sunburst dials. The case finishing looks damn good also. How does the screw down of the crown feel on this, pretty solid with good turns?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok, this might seem a strange question, and I'm going to preface this by saying I was 10 seconds from pulling the trigger on this watch , but...does anyone else feel a little weird about buying a rep of a watch that is supposed to have some proceeds go to charity? Maybe a silly question but my conscience got the better of me. Maybe I should just man up and buy it and donate $30 to the foundation. What do you guys think?

Edited by monga
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