How do you expand a watch line? When you establish or (re-establish) a three-hand model, and it’s a hit, what do you do with it next? The platform you’ve created serves as a canvas for basically anything you want — especially with brands’ willingness to shove a quadruple deluxe hydrotourbillon minute repeater with chain and fusee into even the most unsuspecting online fake watches. In 2023, IWC relaunched its Gerald Genta-designed integrated bracelet watch, the Ingenieur, to quite a positive response from just about everyone. All it’s done since (including this year’s drops) are different case materials and different dials. But no major Swiss brand is going to sit by and keep a hit model in its original configuration. While I think most people would’ve guessed the first complication would be a chronograph, IWC has surprised us all by introducing the UK perfect replica IWC Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar 41 watches (in steel!).
What great and powerful temptation IWC must have fought to make this in some precious metal. “Platinum perpetual calendar” just rolls off the tongue, and the complication easily justifies the fancy material. Well, thank goodness IWC didn’t, and God bless the shaman that protected the brand. The best copy IWC Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar (proposed nickname: Ingy PC) watches are made of glorious steel and is a bit beefier than the 40mm time-and-date, with a diameter of 41.6mm and a thickness of 13.4mm. That’s almost 3mm thicker than the original, but as you can see, on David’s 6.75in wrist, it still manages to sit quite nicely.
The form and finish of the Ingy PC (I’m not sure that’s going to catch on) are identical to the previous high quality fake watches. Overall the look is chunky, with a dramtic brushed bezel where Genta has thoroughly left his mark with five functional screws, the integrated bracelet design, and the block but slim crown guards. Polishing helps break things up, especially on the bracelet, which has an H-link design with polished center links. While the shop replica watches are very comfortable, I was disappointed to see that after two years, the brand has still not made standard the optional folding clasp with on-the-fly extension, nor introduced strap alternatives that work with some version of the brand’s EasX-Change system (I know that would mess with it being a truly integrated bracelet, but I think we’ve all moved past that level of snobbery).
I think the greatest achievement for IWC here is the dial. It’s managed to implement a perpetual calendar display without making the UK cheap super clone watches feel cluttered or shoving the complication in your face. Compare that to how it fills the dial of the Portugieser or Big Pilot’s perpetuals, with hemispheric indications and a four-digit year display. The execution here maintains the sporty vibe of the Ingenieur — there’s no artistic rendition of the moon or the starry sky behind it. Instead, the blue dial has the same grid pattern as the standard models, the same raised chapter ring around its edge, and the same unfortunate, mushy “IWC” text. But the three registers of the perpetual calendar blend right in. Each features a polished ring around a circular grooved track around a circular brushed center. The hands are minimalist, and the moon disc repeats the circular grooving and has a simple silver moon. The added displays blend in, there when you need them, barely noticeable background noise when you don’t.
True IWC buffs may have noticed the dial layout’s resemblance to the current Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 42 and the 40mm Portofino Perpetual calendar. Like those (and all IWC perpetuals), the AAA replica IWC watches are adjusted entirely by the crown, and the movement updates the entire dial instantaneously each day. But IWC gives the Ingenieur’s in-house automatic movement a different designation, the 82600. It’s unclear what the difference may be between the 82600 and the 82650 that powers the Portugieser and Portofino. Both have 60-hour power reserves, beat at 28,800 vph, and have 46 jewels. Both have bidirectional winding and use ceramic for high-stress components. My efforts to compare the two side-by-side yielded no further clues, so I’m forced to think that any differences are either negligible or non-existent. For those who plan for this to be a generational heirloom, the moonphase is accurate for 577.5 years.
The top fake IWC Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar watches are entering a surprisingly crowded space of bracelet-fitted steel perpetual calendars. AP, Piaget, and Moser offer them, and Frederique Constant undercuts everyone. If you don’t care about the bracelet, then the world is your oyster, with plenty of options from both IWC and Richemont sibling JWC. The Ingenieur is priced in the middle of the pack, and it’s sort of a middle-of-the-pack kind of watch. You get the complete Ingenieur experience, with a killer complication, but none of the fuss that typically comes with that complication.