Price of Admission: What Are the Least Expensive IWC Watches?

IWC Schaffhausen is the quintessential example of a watchmaker that set out to become famous for one thing but ended up being famous for something else. Founded in 1868 by American expat Florentine Ariosto Jones, the International Watch Company devoted itself chiefly to luxuriously decorated pocket watches in its early years but when the military needs of a European continent at war came calling in the 1940s, Jones’ firm shifted its production to focus on decidedly no-frills, robust, utilitarian wristwatches for use in the cockpits of planes. Fast forwarding to today, most watch enthusiasts still regard IWC first and foremost as a leader in the pilot’s watch genre. But that wasn’t always the case, and in fact, IWC’s 21st-Century collection is about as diverse as that of any watch brand out there. For a newbie to the brand, however, that diversity — and even the diversity within the vastly expanded Pilot’s collection itself — can prove daunting, especially when attempting to choose which IWC watches offer the price-to-value ratio that would motivate one to pull the trigger on a purchase. In this latest article in our recently inaugurated Price of Admission series, I will attempt to help you make sense of IWC’s modern collection from an entry-level pricing standpoint, homing in on the best models to consider as one’s “first” IWC watch. 

PILOT’S WATCHES:

IWC Pilot's Watch Automatic 36 ($4,350)

It’s appropriate to start our exploration with the Pilot’s series, since it’s not only the largest and most well-known family within the portfolio but it also includes the most entry-level IWC watch in terms of pricing. In fact, the Pilot’s collection — which includes an array of subfamilies, from Spitfire to Mark XX to Top Gun, and models that cross over into each family, like the Big Pilot’s Watch and Pilot’s Chronograph — is the only collection that currently offers options under the price threshold of $5,000. At the ground floor in terms of cost is the IWC Pilot’s Watch Automatic 36 in stainless steel, on an alligator leather strap by italian leather purveyor Santoni, a longtime IWC partner, which is priced at $4,350. The 36mm case (10.4mm thick) might be a bit small for some, but it’s equipped with IWC’s in-house automatic Caliber 35111, which has a 50-hour power reserve and a hacking seconds function. Like all IWC pilots’ watches since World War II, this movement is protected from magnetic fields inside an inner case made of soft iron.

If you’re looking to go a little larger for your first IWC Pilot’s Watch, and still looking at $5,000 as your ceiling for price, consider the Pilot’s Watch Automatic Spitfire, which sells for $4,900 in its 39mm stainless steel iteration on a textile strap. The classical Pilot’s Watch dial is more or less the same as that on the 36mm model, with thick sword hands, Arabic hour numerals and an orientation triangle flanked by two dots at 12 o’clock, but the Spitfire offers a substantial upgrade in terms of its movement, the in-house Caliber 32111, with an amped-up power reserve of 120 hours. Aesthetically, the Spitfire also features a more attractive caseback, engraved with the image of the WWII fighter plane that lends the watch its name, as opposed to the solid, unadorned caseback of the 36mm model. Very similar in design, and packing the same movement, is the Pilot’s Watch Mark XX in steel, which nudges the budget over the $5K line to an MSRP of $5,250. For the additional cash, you get a slightly larger case (40mm) and a strap equipped with IWC’s EasX quick-change system that allows the wearer to swap out different straps without the need for tools. Some might find this added versatility to be worth the extra cost. 

IWC Pilot's Watch Mark XX ($5,250)

The Pilot’s Watch Top Gun series — identified by its official U.S. Navy branding, including a “TOP GUN” engraving on the caseback, and its use of high-tech, aviation-influenced materials like ceramics — starts out a little higher, with the Pilot’s Watch Automatic version selling for $6,350 in a 41mm black ceramic case. The watch houses the same Caliber 32111 as its smaller, steel-cased brethren and also features the EasX strap change design. Fans of IWC have certainly noted that the company has been expanding its array of ceramics in recent years, bringing in exotic, colorful variations like the sand-colored ceramic of the “Mojave Desert” editions and the dark green of the “Woodland” models. Sadly for those of more modest means, those watches are all Chronographs rather than Automatics, meaning they’ll cost substantially more: $11,700 at the time of this writing. 

IWC Pilot's Watch Automatic Top Gun ($6,350)

Speaking of chronographs, what is the least expensive chronograph in the IWC Pilot’s Watch collection? Look no further than the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Spitfire, 41mm in stainless steel on a (non-EasX) textile strap, with an MSRP of $7,450. The black dial has a classical arrangement of subdials at 12, 9, and 6 o’clock, balanced out by a day/date display at 3 o’clock. The movement is IWC’s automatic Caliber 69380, with a 48-hour power reserve. Tack on an additional $150 and you can get a very similar watch with a few subtle but notable enhancements. The Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 has essentially the same case and dial but includes the EasX strap-change system and its movement, Caliber 69385, is displayed behind a transparent sapphire caseback. The movement is a version of the 69380 in the Spitfire, here with the added value of a solid-gold rotor. 

Finally, if you feel the need to “go big or go home” (well, in this case, go home without purchasing an IWC), there is the Big Pilot’s Watch, the brand’s most historically significant and, somewhat frustratingly, its most expensive series across the board. Back in 2021, in response to market trends, IWC introduced the Big Pilot’s Watch 43, which was still larger than your average 21st-Century aviator watch but not as massive as the model that had been on the market since its revival in 2002. The “BP43,” as it came to be known in shorthand, also had the benefit of being more historically accurate to its ancestor from a dial-design standpoint and also features (introduced, actually) the EasX quick-change architecture that enabled the strap to be swapped not only for another strap (rubber for leather, for example) but also, for the first time in the Pilot’s collection, an all-new steel link bracelet. As you might expect, the most entry-level pricing for a Big Pilot’s Watch, $8,950, is on a three-hand automatic, the BP43 with a stainless steel case on a calfskin strap. The movement is IWC’s Caliber 82100, which offers a suitably “Big” power reserve of 60 hours.

IWC Big Pilot's Watch Automatic 43 ($8,950)

Of course, there’s still a market out there for the original Big Pilot’s Watch, with its wrist-dominating 46.2mm case and its fully loaded automatic movement, Caliber 52111, which stores an astonishing eight-day (168-hour) power reserve and displays it proudly on a 3 o’clock subdial. If you are in this target market, be prepared to pony up: the “entry-level,” steel-cased models are priced at $13,200 — enough to buy a three-hand Spitfire and a Spitfire Chronograph and still have a few bucks left over. 

PORTUGIESER:

IWC Portugieser Automatic 40 ($7,450)

The IWC Portugieser debuted in 1939, taking its name from the clients who’d specially ordered it, who happened to be from Portugal. It was a very large wristwatch for its time, an era dominated by thin, elegant Art Deco pieces, and it carried within it a pocket watch movement. Nowadays, the Portugieser is no longer considered “oversized” in its dimensions, but it has bucked the recent trends of going more diminutive and remains a popular dress watch within IWC’s lineup. Regarded as a bastion of elegance and early 20th-Century classicism, with its slender leaf-shaped hands, applied Arabic hour numerals in a light, narrow font, and a pearled minute ring, the Portugieser Automatic retails for $7,450 in a 40mm stainless steel case on an alligator leather strap. Behind its sapphire caseback beats the IWC manufacture Caliber 82200, with côtes de Genève decoration and a 60-hour power reserve. Chronograph mavens might want to take note that a basic steel-cased Portugieser Chronograph, with a 41mm case and the automatic Caliber 69355 inside, can be had for $8,400 — slightly less than $1,000 more than the Automatic. Caliber 69355 boasts all the attributes of the Caliber 69385 inside the Pilot’s Chronographs, minus the day and date displays on the dial, which might be a plus for some potential owners. 

PORTOFINO:

Taking inspiration from 19th-century pocket watch designs, and its evocative name from the fabled resort spot on the Italian Riviera, the Portofino, introduced in 1984, is IWC’s most elegantly minimalist model. Portofino watches can be identified by characteristics like their narrow bezels, thin, straight lugs, leaf hands, and hours marked with simple baton indexes and Roman numerals at 12 and 6 o’clock. Also, unlike the Portugieser, the Portofino is offered in more unisex or even feminine case sizes. The entry-level Portofino is, again, a relatively simple three-hand Automatic with a 3 o’clock date in a 40mm stainless steel case for $5,050. (Myself, I would probably try to scrape up the additional $400 for the very attractive version with a slightly smaller 39mm case and an analog-date subdial at 6 o’clock.) 

IWC Portofino Automatic 37 on bracelet ($7,300)

That hypothetical extra $400 would also buy you a more feminine-sized, 34mm Portofino Automatic in steel on calfskin leather. And here is the only juncture at which my deep dive into IWC’s lineup left me scratching my head. I couldn’t find a single thing that stood out about the 34mm model that would make it more costly than the larger 40mm watch. The movements — Caliber 35111 in the 40mm and Caliber 35100 in the 34mm — are virtually the same, both based on the Sellita SW300-1, both hidden behind solid steel casebacks, both with a 42-hour power reserve. The 35100 in the smaller watch is minus the date display of the 35111 — though it’s hard to imagine, even in an era when date windows are increasingly falling out of favor with many enthusiasts, that this would be regarded as an incentive to spend several hundred more dollars, especially for a substantially smaller watch. 

Perhaps the sweet spot in the Portofino family can be found with the steel-cased Portofino Automatic 37. For a price boost to $6,250, you get a middle-of-the-road, understated steel case at 37mm, an EasX-equipped, quick-change leather strap, and an in-house movement with a 120-hour power reserve, plus a view of the latter courtesy of the sapphire caseback. Also worth noting: it’s within the Portofino family that the least expensive IWC chronograph model resides: the Portofino Chronograph 39 (the numerical suffix, as you’ve surely gleaned by now, is the case diameter) contains within its stainless steel case the self-winding IWC Caliber 79350, which is based on the tried-and-true ETA Valjoux 7750; like other IWC movements built on outsourced bases, it is ensconced behind a solid steel caseback, which helps in keeping its price below the $7,000 threshold — $6,700 at this writing, which is $700 less than its nearest sibling in the Pilot’s Watch family. 

INGENIEUR:

IWC Ingenieur Automatic 40 in steel ($11,700)

The Ingenieur is a watch that has been around since 1955 and has probably undergone more evolutions of its core design than any other IWC model, with the most recent one coming in 2023. Between this feature on the growth of antimagnetic technology in watches, which puts the original model’s intriguing origins into historical context; my detailed report on the newest Ingenieur from Watches & Wonders 2023; and my colleague Blake Buettner’s hands-on owner’s review, our team has pretty thoroughly covered the modern Ingenieur, but in the service of being complete, I’ve included it in this list of entry-level IWC models. With a lowest price of $11,700 in steel— which shoots to $14,600 for the titanium version — the Ingenieur is unlikely to be a “first” IWC watch to start a collection of the brand, but it’s such a distinctive timepiece, with its own identity apart from others in the collection, that some may be interested in its as an “only” IWC. 

AQUATIMER:

IWC Ingenieur Automatic 42 ($6,100; photo: Analog:Shift)

Remember that bit at the beginning about how IWC started out making complicated dress watches but is now famous for pilot’s watches? Well, enthusiasts who are new to the Schaffhausen brand might be intrigued to know that IWC also makes some very nice, serious dive watches as well, though it’s been several years since they’ve been in the spotlight of the brand’s marketing efforts. The Aquatimer made its debut in 1967 and has held a solid spot in the collection ever since, even embodying IWC’s parrtnerships with oceanic conservation organizations like the Cousteau Society and Charles Darwin Society. An Aquatimer Automatic retails for $6,100 in a 42mm steel case on a quick-change rubber strap; what that buys you from a practicality standpoint is a robust 300 meters of water resistance, IWC’s proprietary “SafeDive” internal rotating bezel system to securely set dive times, and a 120-hour power reserve courtesy of the in-house Caliber 32111 (which is hidden behind a solid caseback). The same Automatic costs $7,000 on a steel bracelet, and a slight upcharge of $7,250 will snag you the Chronograph version on a rubber strap. The Aquatimer Chronograph, whose case expands to 44mm for the additional functionality, features all the dive-ready qualities of the three-hand Automatic but also includes a built-in stopwatch powered by the ETA-based Caliber 79320, with a 44-hour power reserve.

Interested in exploring other watch brands? Check out our "Price of Admission" guides to Cartier and Blancpain.