This 1952 IWC is one of my favorite watches. Timeless design: it's 74 years old and looks like it could have been made yesterday. And timeless enginee...
Paul Graham praises a 1952 IWC watch for its timeless design (looking like it could have been made yesterday despite being 74 years old) and engineering (still running at +1 second per day dial up).
Background
- Paul Graham is a well-known programmer, venture capitalist, and co-founder of Y Combinator, the influential Silicon Valley startup accelerator.
- IWC (International Watch Company) is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer founded in 1868, known for high-end mechanical timepieces.
- The post highlights a 74-year-old mechanical watch that still keeps time within +1 second per day — an extraordinary level of accuracy for a mechanical movement of that age, rivaling modern quartz accuracy. Most vintage mechanical watches drift significantly more.
- "Dial up" refers to the watch resting face-up, a position that often yields the most accurate timekeeping for mechanical watches due to gravity's minimal effect on the balance wheel in that orientation.