IWC 3789 vs. IWC 3799 - Suggestions!

[Paneriwc321]

Hi all,

 

As many of you might have already encountered, I'm torn between the 3789 and the 3799 (If I got the numbering correct, thats between the simple and double chronographs of the TG Series).

 

My Ideas on this are as following:

 

1. Of course, the 3799 speaks for itself- just looks amazing, the biggest asset is, although its biggest giveaway- the faux 10oclock pusher.

 

(Does anybody know whether these are spring loaded on the 7750 Valjoux movements?)- since it is faux, it might after all work as a proper pusher!

 

2. The 3789 is less of a giveaway, since the chronograph will work on the 7750. (not as beautiful, but still a TG).

 

What worries me, is that all I can find are the versions of this watch in which the seconds are situated at the 9'oclock position, whereas the (newest?) version of the TG Chrono have eliminated the chronograph-hours sundial completely and replaced it with the seconds subdial. Is the version with the complete set of dials (seconds, chromo-minutes/hours) at the 9, 12 and 6 o'clock positions respectively, an older IWC version or has it never existed- and is only like that to compensate the fact that the valjoux 7750 displays its seconds at the 9oclock position?

 

I hope you can follow my line of thoughts- any help or advice, or even a push in one direction would be of great appreciation!

 

Best Regards

[markiemark]

There is no proper movement with secs @6. There are modded 7750's with secs @ 6, but those are rather unreliable in therms of durability and stability in most occasions...

[Mirage]

I have a 3799 and I am very happy with it.  It is the exact same watch as in the movie "The Bourne Legacy".  This model existed and was in the IWC catalog until 2012.  It is in 2013 that the entire line up of pilot chrono watches (except the 3777) saw their sub dial layout changing from seconds at 9 o'clock position to 6 o'clock position.

 

The movement used in thees pilot's watches is a derivative from the famous Valjoux 7750 now manufactured by ETA under the same ref number.  IWC has added an extra plate and  a module of three jewelled gears that are transferring the seconds from 9 to 6.  Unfortunately our dear Asian friend have done the same but without jewelling the gears. This creates extra friction and drag on the movement therefore it gets the movement not to last very long.

 

To answer your other question about the pusher at 10, yes, it is functional, well it does not activate anything, but it is a real pusher with a spring just like the 2 others.

 

Although it is 46mm, I wears quite small.  It fells just like my 44mm PAM, and maybe a bit smaller.

[opti]

The new top gun uses an IWC in house movement, not a 7750. This has a running seconds at 6, and a 60 minute counter at 12 (7750 counter is minute counter is 30 minutes). So chances of this configuration getting repped are pretty slim, closest is actually a quartz movement, which has a running sec at 6 and 60 minute counter at 12. As mirage stated new models replace old ones, only the 3777 is still eta 7750 based now, topguns are in house movement now also with spitfires.

 

The previous models of topguns used 7750 based movements, even the 3799, just had extra module for dopple function. IWC is slowly shifting all their watches away from ETA movements to their in house one, Breitling is doing the same.

Edited January 9, 2014 by opti