In the Da Vinci from 1990, IWC is putting under the virtual gavel a masterpiece by the company, which is as impressive in its mechanical diversity as it is in the simplicity of its operation. The stainless steel variant with a white dial in English was made in only 110 examples. This rarity makes it so popular among collectors that it is now hardly ever found.
The proceeds from this ninth charity auction at www.iwc.ch will benefit the Association Vol de Nuit/Vuelo Nocturno.




The IWC Da Vinci, Reference 3750, dating from the year 1990, a legend among wristwatches with a perpetual calendar, will come up for auction from 13 to 20 December 2006. This rarity can seldom be found at auctions any more, because IWC produced only 110 watches in the stainless steel variant with a white dial in English. The pre-Christmas Internet auction on the Web site of the Swiss watch manufactory IWC Schaffhausen is a time-honoured tradition and draws dozens of collectors to their computer screens every year. It has also become an established custom for the company to donate the proceeds to a charitable or cultural institution.
The recipient on this occasion is the Association Vol de Nuit/Vuelo Nocturno, which cares for socially disadvantaged children in Argentina.

Great movements survive for generations
A new age dawned in 1985 with the Chronograph Da Vinci. The perpetual calendar in wristwatch format triggered the renaissance of the complicated mechanical watch. This time machine from Schaffhausen, named after the Italian inventor and artist Leonardo Da Vinci, is equipped with a unique mechanism.
Its perpetual calendar is mechanically programmed until 2499, knows every leap year by heart, and needs no adjustment other than the replacement of the century slide supplied with the watch. A minor intervention will also be required in the years 2100, 2200 and 2300, because these are not leap years under the Gregorian calendar. The complexity of such an intricate mechanism was mastered for the first time in the Da Vinci, to make life easier for the user. For all the calendar indications – date, day, month, year, decade, century and moon phase – can be moved forwards synchronously via the crown as required.

Standard for a big complication
With an overall height of 14.3 mm, there is space enough for the calibre 79061 automatic movement, with 28,800 beats per hour, 39 jewel bearings, perpetual calendar, perpetual moon phase display, four-digit year display, chronograph, small seconds with stop function and mechanical chronograph movement. The stainless steel case has a diameter of 39 mm and bears the number 2838282. The dial is protected by Plexiglas, the crown is of the screw-in type, and the watch is water-resistant to 3 bar (30 m).

Going, going, gone...
The more than 15-year-old Da Vinci is one of the great horological classics of our time and even has an entry in the Guinness Book of In the Da Vinci, IWC is putting up for auction a stroke of genius in the history of the mechanical watch Records. The starting bid for this extraordinary watch is 15,000 US dollars.
The auction will open on 13 December 2006, not later than 6 p.m. CET, on the home page of IWC (http://www.iwc.ch).
Incremental bids from 100 to 400 US dollars will be accepted. The hammer will fall for the last time on 20 December 2006 between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. CET. IWC Schaffhausen is donating the entire proceeds to the Association Vol de Nuit/ Vuelo Nocturno. Detailed information about the progress of the auction will be published on the IWC Web site from 6 December 2006.

Proceeds benefit children in need
It is no accident that the proceeds of the auction will benefit the Association Vol de Nuit/Vuelo Nocturno, an Argentinean humanitarian organization.
IWC has been in partnership for the past year with the Société Civile pour l’OEuvre et la Mémoire d’Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, an organization which administers the intellectual legacy of the French author and pilot. Saint-Exupéry, at one time director of the airmail company in Buenos Aires, not only met his wife, Consuelo, but also wrote his important work, “Night Flight”, in Argentina. For this reason it was obvious to Frédéric d’Agay, great-nephew of the world-famous Frenchman, to establish his first humanitarian project in Argentina.

The country was overtaken at the start of the new millennium by an unparalleled economic crisis, which plunged large parts of the population into misery.

The children who are supported by the Association Vol de Nuit/Vuelo Nocturno, founded in 2003, lack everything:
food, clothing, school materials and hope for the future. The humanitarian institution operates in Buenos Aires and its suburbs in partnership with schools, homes and other facilities for street children. The entire proceeds of the IWC Internet auction will be used by the Foundation for its most urgent projects.
“These disadvantaged children should be able to benefit from a school education, learn a trade and make a responsible contribution to the future of Argentina,” is how Frédéric d’Agay, President of the Foundation, summarizes his objectives. “With our help, it will be possible to protect large numbers of children from criminality, begging and depravity.”

Source: IWC Schaffhausen

www.iwc.ch

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