eunomians Posted March 14, 2007 Report Share Posted March 14, 2007 Greetings to my old friends and to all the new/newer members who do not know me. For the folks that don't know me... I am the one they call 'Euno' Anyhow, I have been on the hunt for an IWC Mark XV for many years. In fact, I have almost pulled the trigger on owning the real thing quite a few times but there are too many vintage pilot/military watches that came my way instead. And certainly, they were 'better' & 'smarter' purchases than the venerable MK XV. For a very very long time, I (and many other veteran RWG/TRC members) have struggled to understand why replicating simple items such as the MK XV remained so difficult. In the end, I concluded that a perfectly executed example of zen-like simplicity is utterly difficult to recreate. Hence the many years of horrid MK XV reps. Instead of waiting for the factories to make a better rep, I decided to take matters in to my own hands. So I started picking up OEM IWC parts whenever I came across them. As you know, IWC parts are essentially unavailable - but thanks to my many years of establashing relationships with genuine watch collectors/sellers, I managed to get all the items that I needed for this project. Here is a list of the OEM parts: - crown - tube - hands - dial The base watch is Trusty's MK XV (which is a wonderfully executed and highly recommend piece on its own). So, I slapped in the dial and installed the hands. Then I had the tube + crown & gaskets were installed by my watchmaker. The watch was pressure-tested to 150M for minimum of 5 minutes. I was lucky to get the Luminova versions of the dial and hands. The earliest incarnates of the MK XV were lumed with Tritium. Well, please have a look at the pics. Included are before and after pics. I have several straps for this watch, but for the time being , this watch is paired up with a German aviator strap (used on many Mark series such as MKX, MKXI, Type 48, IWC & Jaeger LeCoultre)... *Please note: I do not have anymore parts nor can I get any more IWC parts! I hope you enjoy the pics/thread. Best regards OLD BASE WATCH PIC: REP & OEM DIALS: REP DIAL DETAIL: OEM DIAL DETAIL: COMPLETED CONVERSION: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craytonic Posted March 14, 2007 Report Share Posted March 14, 2007 Wow, that looks great. It is so much sharper! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddhead Posted March 14, 2007 Report Share Posted March 14, 2007 Greetings to my old friends and to all the new/newer members who do not know me. For the folks that don't know me... I am the one they call 'Euno' Anyhow, I have been on the hunt for an IWC Mark XV for many years. In fact, I have almost pulled the trigger on owning the real thing quite a few times but there are too many vintage pilot/military watches that came my way instead. And certainly, they were 'better' & 'smarter' purchases than the venerable MK XV. For a very very long time, I (and many other veteran RWG/TRC members) have struggled to understand why replicating simple items such as the MK XV remained so difficult. In the end, I concluded that a perfectly executed example of zen-like simplicity is utterly difficult to recreate. Hence the many years of horrid MK XV reps. Beautiful... really very nice!! It must make you feel great to have put that kind of effort into the project and come out with something that good. Congrats man. Instead of waiting for the factories to make a better rep, I decided to take matters in to my own hands. So I started picking up OEM IWC parts whenever I came across them. As you know, IWC parts are essentially unavailable - but thanks to my many years of establashing relationships with genuine watch collectors/sellers, I managed to get all the items that I needed for this project. Here is a list of the OEM parts: - crown - tube - hands - dial The base watch is Trusty's MK XV (which is a wonderfully executed and highly recommend piece on its own). So, I slapped in the dial and installed the hands. Then I had the tube + crown & gaskets were installed by my watchmaker. The watch was pressure-tested to 150M for minimum of 5 minutes. I was lucky to get the Luminova versions of the dial and hands. The earliest incarnates of the MK XV were lumed with Tritium. Well, please have a look at the pics. Included are before and after pics. I have several straps for this watch, but for the time being , this watch is paired up with a German aviator strap (used on many Mark series such as MKX, MKXI, Type 48, IWC & Jaeger LeCoultre)... *Please note: I do not have anymore parts nor can I get any more IWC parts! I hope you enjoy the pics/thread. Best regards OLD BASE WATCH PIC: REP & OEM DIALS: REP DIAL DETAIL: OEM DIAL DETAIL: COMPLETED CONVERSION: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratchpot Posted March 14, 2007 Report Share Posted March 14, 2007 Eunomians, rather than just quote your whole post over again, I'll just congratulate you on a superb project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jj69 Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 Euno beat me to it! Mine is still a work in progress. If anyone has any leads on the gen IWC parts, please LMK. I'm especially after the gen hands! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 Hi Euno, good to see you back. This project of yours looks superb. I've never thought so much about getting a XV, because I always thought the rep looks a bit "cheap", but yours truly looks great. I am very jealous..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erwinner Posted March 31, 2007 Report Share Posted March 31, 2007 And now that the IWC Mark XVI is out, I'm waiting for a nice rep of this one as well... I just love the 2 extra dot's on the dial ;-) If anybody knows where to get a decent one, just LMK....! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eunomians Posted March 31, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2007 I would scoop up a MK XVI rep up in a heartbeat, too. The MK XVI is unorthodox IMHO, like the Spitfire. But, I still like it. What I don't like is... The Spitfire. I am glad that they've laid those ugly dials to rest. Anyhow the XVI would match my 3717 very nicely! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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