An IWC pilot's watch against a Bavarian house that makes its own steel and its own movements. The usual story is that the independent charges a premium. Here it does not, and the establishment name is the one trading under list.
Matched on
The forty millimetre steel pilot's watch: a Swiss house with its own in-house calibre, against a Bavarian independent that makes its own steel, its own movements and its own hairspring.
IWC, Schaffhausen
About EUR 5,700 list. Roughly EUR 3,900 to 5,200 on the German secondary market
Forty millimetres of satin finished steel with a black dial, a soft iron ring inside the case to keep magnetism off the movement, and IWC's own calibre 32111 running about a hundred and twenty hours. Put it down on a Friday and pick it up the following Wednesday and it is still running. The Mark line is one of the few genuinely continuous stories in tool watches, and an in-house movement at this level is a real upgrade on the bought-in calibre the Mark XVIII carried. List is about EUR 5,700, and we say about because our two readings do not agree and we would rather say so.
Damasko, Barbing
EUR 2,243 direct, on the Max Sport strap
Damasko works from Barbing, just outside Regensburg, and its whole position is that it makes what other brands buy in. Its steel is its own, nickel free and ice hardened, used for the case, the case back and the crown. Its movements are its own. Its hairspring is its own, a patented polycrystalline silicon spring, which is a thing perhaps five houses in the world can say. The DK36 is forty millimetres of that steel on the house's own A26-3 calibre with a silicon escape wheel, at EUR 2,243 direct. Note the configuration: the price moves with the strap or bracelet.
The verdict
On the numbers a watchmaker cares about, the Mark XX wins one clearly. A hundred and twenty hours against forty two is not a rounding difference, it is the difference between a watch that tolerates being taken off for a long weekend and one that does not. If you own more than three watches, that matters more than it sounds. On the numbers an owner cares about, the DK36 is under half the price and the material is arguably better: ice hardened steel resists marking in a way ordinary 316L does not, and it is the case, not the movement, that takes the wear on a watch you actually use. Then the part that inverts the usual story. The Swiss watch is the one that moves. The Mark XX trades on the German secondary market at roughly EUR 3,900 to 5,200, with an average asking price around EUR 4,400, comfortably under its own list. The Damasko has no discount to give, because there is no dealer margin in the price to begin with. That is not a criticism of IWC. A watch with a dealer network has a dealer network's economics, and a buyer benefits from that in service, in resale liquidity and in being able to hand the thing over a counter when it stops. Damasko's model asks you to deal with Barbing. Some people want that and some do not.
The TGC view
If you want the Mark XX, buy it on the secondary market: it is one of the clearer cases where the same watch, barely worn, sits well under list and the guarantee usually travels. If you want the DK36, buy it new and direct, because that is the only way it is sold and the price already has no fat in it. And if you want the thing this pairing is really about, note which of the two makes its own hairspring. It is not the one on the front of the aviation magazines. We make the introduction either way.
Breguet patented the tourbillon in 1801 and puts the patent date on the dial. A twenty-something Frenchman on the shore of Lake Annecy makes twelve tourbillons a year by hand, and charges less. For once the independent is not the expensive one.
Read the review →Two pure round dress watches, and a shared secret: the independent was made by a man who spent thirty-seven years inside one of the great Geneva houses before leaving to sign his own name. The house, or the hand that used to work there?
Read the review →Two watches judged on the same virtue, finishing, at twenty times the price. One is a Japanese manufacture selling a mirror-polished case for the price of a holiday. The other is a Finnish master hand-making fifty a year. How far up the curve does your eye want to go?
Read the review →