Teddy Baldassarre
IWC Ingenieur Automatic 40 Review
IWC released a new generation of its Ingenieur collection in 2023, at what many would consider the tail end of the integrated-luxury-sport-watch craze that gripped the industry heading into 2020. At the time, it was tempting to say that IWC was a bit late to the punch here, especially considering the Schaffhausen-based brand's enviable position of having an original Gérald Genta design from the ‘70s to utilize. In hindsight, however, it seems that IWC was playing the long game, and wasn’t interested in rushing out a throwback type of release. Instead, IWC took a bit more time and released a modern rendition of the original Genta design, released in 1976, as a foundation for years to come. The result is the Reference 3289 Ingenieur, and it’s a watch that looks to do more than merely capitalize on a passing trend. There are two watches with which you likely associate the name Gérald Genta, and those are the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, and the Patek Philippe Nautilus. Genta penned both of these now iconic designs, in 1972 and 1976 respectively, and they have served as cornerstones in creating the premium sport-watch genre as a whole, as well as helped to spawn the subset of integrated-bracelet designs within it. But those are far from the only watches that can be attributed to Genta, and in fact, aren’t even the only integrated-bracelet sport-watch designs to come out of that era. In 1976, he also designed a new Ingenieur for IWC, known as the SL Ref. 1832 (tha...
