In 1967, IWC launched the “Yacht Club” model. The classical dress watches and military timepieces for pilots the brand was best known for at the time, the model wanted to offer a casual chic proposition. The name says in fact it all: it is a watch that can be worn in the suave atmosphere of a yacht club while sipping champagne and admiring a Sardinian sunset, but robust and reliable enough to be worn during the preceding regatta.

This philosophy was in fact light years ahead of its time, and it has more than one shared trait with the mindset that brought to life - less than a decade later - the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and the Patek Philippe Nautilus.

The present timepiece is a unique specimen of this landmark watch: in depth research discloses that it was sold in Hong Kong in September 1970. Unfortunately, IWC archives do not provide detail on watch dials, but accurate examination of both sides of the dial and the fact that even the date ring has been realized in the same particular tonality prompted us to believe in the absolute originality of the timepieces. In order to dispel any possible doubt, the watch - together with its blue sibling (preceding lot) - was physically sent to IWC. After in depth examination, they concluded that the dial is a 100% original IWC product, and was most probably originally fitted on this timepiece. While the absence of a dial record prevented IWC from mentioning the dial on the Extract, David Seyffer - Heritage director of IWC - was kind enough to provide this comment:

"The two dials are highly rare; They are a design experiment from IWCs dial supplier. Only a few dials of the two variants exist. They were available in green and blue. Additionally, there was the corresponding date disc in the same colour. Officially, Yacht Club watches with these dials were never advertised. This makes the two pieces really very special.”

We deeply thank the IWC Heritage Department for their support in researching these pieces.