Genta's ghost, nearly in my size
By Hannah Lindqvist, Stockholm ·
Gérald Genta drew the Ingenieur SL in the 1970s, and IWC's 2023 version brings back the five screws in the bezel, the textured grid dial and the integrated bracelet. It's the most convincing revival of a 70s sports watch I've seen in years, and I say that as someone who usually finds revivals lazy.
On paper it's very good. The 32111 is an in-house movement with 120 hours, which is five days. I could leave it on the dresser over a long Midsummer weekend and it would still be running on Tuesday. The closed caseback is there for a reason: there's a soft-iron inner cage for antimagnetism, a real benefit when you spend your days next to laptops, phones and an induction hob.
The grid on the dial is subtle in photos and should be subtler still in daylight, closer to the weave of a technical fabric than a decoration. I'd go for the black. The case is already busy with screws and polished bevels, and a quiet dial calms it down. And the 120 hours are not a gimmick if you rotate. Wear a GPS watch on training days and this on office days, and it's still running on Friday without you touching the crown.
On the wrist is where it gets complicated for me. 40 mm and 10.8 mm thick sound manageable, but the lugs are integrated and fairly long, and the bracelet starts out flat and wide at 22 mm. I suspect lug-to-lug is the problem here, not the diameter, and that's exactly the measurement press photos never show. I'd need to see it on my own arm before I believed anyone.
A practical winter note: like every steel bracelet, it will be freezing for the first minute on a January morning, and because the case is integrated you can't easily throw it on a soft textile strap for the cold months. That matters more to me than it might to someone in Milan.
Then the price. Close to twelve thousand dollars. That's four times a Tudor Royal and eight times the Christopher Ward Twelve. You do get proper engineering for the money. You also get a lot of polished edges that will get scratched the first time you brush a granite wall on a via ferrata.
So: for someone with a 16.5 cm wrist or more who loves the 70s and wants something quietly geeky. For me, a maybe that keeps trying to become a yes.