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Best Outta Box Rep


dmastah12

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Is that the Spitfire with bracelet?

Correct. This is an excellet rep out of the box. The Aquatimers are also great out of the box...and there is an expensive MBW or something like that (I'm not sure) Ingy that is well thought of. I wrote a review of the Spitfire...you can look for that...and it's linked in the IWC guide.

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Correct. This is an excellet rep out of the box. The Aquatimers are also great out of the box...and there is an expensive MBW or something like that (I'm not sure) Ingy that is well thought of. I wrote a review of the Spitfire...you can look for that...and it's linked in the IWC guide.

Toad, read your review ( great as usual). What about the cousteou divers? I am not too keen in the Ingy tbh. The spitfire looks great though!!

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I'll second the 3717-05 vote. The flaws are so minor: day/datewheel font is off (but can be swapped to ETA), seconds subdial hand should be a bit smaller, and minute hand is a bit long.. and the caseback design is wrong for this model (but correct for the black dial 3717). Other than those tiny flaws, it's pretty much spot on.

3717spitwrist2.jpg

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Toad, read your review ( great as usual). What about the cousteou divers? I am not too keen in the Ingy tbh. The spitfire looks great though!!

Thanks. I love my Cousteau. I did a 2006 CD review here as well. It's a great watch and probably the one I wear the most. The big issues on the watch though are the hour markers on the outside are a little too close to the metal crystal frame, and the wood insert to some looks too fake. I think it looks fine unless you get it in harsh halogen type light then you can see the texture is wrong for real wood.

The bezel doesn't line up at 12 without work which I haven't bothered with.

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You mean all IWC need a DW swap? Then i guess any IWC with a date is not for me.

There is no perfect out of the box rep. You can wear all those IWC that I mentioned without modding anything and 99.9% of people would never pay attention, but it depends how you feel about it. Even if you put the correct the DW some minor flaws will still be there: for example, the hands of the ingy (hour and minute) are little beat shorter than the gen and there's nothing you can do about it and the Co. on the case back is wrong, the 3717 still has the thick numbers and hour markers compared to the gen, and I am not sure about the slevin since I don't own one yet , but you are reffered to Pug's excellent review on this watch. So in conclusion, you either have to compromise on some flaws or invest a lot of time and money in modding or invest a lot of money (not so much time though) and buy a gen. So good luck and I am sure you will enjoy any of the great IWC reps that were mentioned here.

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There is no perfect out of the box rep. You can wear all those IWC that I mentioned without modding anything and 99.9% of people would never pay attention, but it depends how you feel about it. Even if you put the correct the DW some minor flaws will still be there: for example, the hands of the ingy (hour and minute) are little beat shorter than the gen and there's nothing you can do about it and the Co. on the case back is wrong, the 3717 still has the thick numbers and hour markers compared to the gen, and I am not sure about the slevin since I don't own one yet , but you are reffered to Pug's excellent review on this watch. So in conclusion, you either have to compromise on some flaws or invest a lot of time and money in modding or invest a lot of money (not so much time though) and buy a gen. So good luck and I am sure you will enjoy any of the great IWC reps that were mentioned here.

Thanks , makes sense. I guess i need to do some more reading up on here.

One last thing, is the big pilot the biggest of the IWC's?

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I'll second the 3717-05 vote. The flaws are so minor: day/datewheel font is off (but can be swapped to ETA), seconds subdial hand should be a bit smaller, and minute hand is a bit long.. and the caseback design is wrong for this model (but correct for the black dial 3717). Other than those tiny flaws, it's pretty much spot on.

3717spitwrist2.jpg

Man thats one sweet looking watch you got there

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I own the 3717 (with AR & DW-swap), GST (out-of-the-box) and Ingy (lello DW) and a Gen MkXVI;

if it's a first buy, go for the Ingy.... reliable ETA movement and not to much that can go wrong

my first IWC was the GST (white dial on SS) and I still wear this watch proudly without any mods

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I own the 3717 (with AR & DW-swap), GST (out-of-the-box) and Ingy (lello DW) and a Gen MkXVI;

if it's a first buy, go for the Ingy.... reliable ETA movement and not to much that can go wrong

my first IWC was the GST (white dial on SS) and I still wear this watch proudly without any mods

For some strange reason i dont feel like the ingy. Will have a read about the GST and get back. Thanks !!!

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I would say that classic 3717 is closer to the gen article. The dial on spitfire has a couple more flaws. The number should be smaller, the subdial look (the concentric circle should be more and towards the centre).

I would say best out of box IWC rep is the GST (small differences in dial, newer version comes with wrong datefont too) or Cousteau Divers 2006 (datefont). The Portugieser also is not flawless... you need to take care of the dial and inner bezel ring tick.

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Both the 3717 v1 and Cousteau get my vote. With some mods, they look quite spot on. The are good out of the box, but with some work, they are masterpieces.

Both watches have ETA swap, Eta Datewheel swap, Chieftang double AR, Full Relume and custom strap for 3717.

3717%20Reno%2021.jpg

Cousteau2.jpg

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