79230

About the IWC 79230

Richard Habring designed the rattrapante mechanism in 1991 as a simple, robust addition to the 7750 rather than the delicate traditional construction, using a lever-and-cam arrangement that could be built and serviced at a fraction of the cost. The result was the first split-seconds chronograph at a production price. A second chronograph seconds hand runs beneath the first; a pusher at 10 o'clock stops it to read an intermediate time and releases it to catch up. The movement has 29 jewels, a 44-hour reserve and a 30 mm diameter, and the 7750 piece explains its base. IWC later replaced it with the 79420.

In the library it sits under 88 Pilot's Watch references, the Doppelchronograph refs 3711 and 3713 in a 42 mm case, plus 5 Portofinos and one Ingenieur. The 42 mm case accounts for 83 references, and 15 are limited editions.

The 79320 is the plain 7750 chronograph in the same Pilot's line, and the 89361 the in-house flyback that succeeded it at the top of the range.