IWC blue dial

International Watch Company Ref. 1828 steel vintage wristwatch, circa 1972

This IWC wristwatch has a captivating blue, satin finished dial with matching blue date ring and a finely drilled, perlé, minute/seconds track.

In the IWC dealer’s catalogue listing for the Ref. 1828, this dial was described as “blue sunray“. The applied indexes have black inserts to their centres which enhance their legibility and are matched in style to the baton hands.

Cased in a tonneau form case, the watch reflects design elements that were popular in the late 1960s and 1970s, yet this is a classically styled model with clean lines and an emphasis on visual clarity.

This watch is powered by the excellent IWC calibre 8541B automatic movement which incorporates a hack feature – when the crown is pulled out to adjust the hands, the seconds hand will stop, thereby allowing accurate synchronisation to a time signal. There is also provision for semi-quick date change – whilst the date will change automatically each day at midnight, it can be manually advanced by repeatedly moving the hands between 11.30pm and midnight.