Hot(?) [Coffee] Take: The IWC Ingenieur (2023 reissue) is the Philz Coffee of Watches

*pic stolen from Teddy Baldasarre

This post is inspired by the most recent Watches in the Wild post and my current stay in SF Bay Area this week.

First, what the heck if Philz Coffee? It's a coffee chain, originally from San Francisco that got really big after I left the Bay Area for New York City over a decade ago. I believe actual Philz locations were used as settings in several episodes of Silicon Valley and their expansion was kept mostly to California, unlike Blue Bottle Coffee, which had similar Bay Area origins.

What does this have to do with anything?

I'm back in the Bay Area helping my mom recover from minor surgery. I didn't ask for time off of work since I know that I would need to occupy my time as my mom would mostly nap during this early phase of her recovery. I'm essentially some guy in California working New York hours this week.

My mom has bounced back quickly, and I'm really thankful for that.

Due to a lack of coffee at my mom's house, I've been going to different places this week. I dropped by Philz on the way home from my mom's follow up appointment yesterday. It was mostly out of curiosity, as I never really understood why Philz was such a big deal. The coffee, while good, isn't terribly special, I could drink black coffee from Starbucks or Peets for less, or get better pour over somewhere else.

As I walked out the door, I realized something: Philz had huge tables (even the two seat tables had larger table tops than other places) and power outlets everywhere, it's place to work.

I returned to Philz today and spent a few hours working and taking some back to back calls, it was a great place to get some work done and I didn't have to worry about bothering my mom with loud phone calls at 9 AM. The wifi was pretty good, too, only experienced significant lag once during my 2-3 hour stay. There are cheaper and/or better places to get a cup of fancy-ish coffee, but this is much cheaper than buying a day pass at a WeWork.

Which brings me back to the Ingenieur, as said by @Edge168n:

I subsequently went into a store to try the new Ingenieur on.  . . . I don't know that I felt that this watch was special enough to command a 5 digit price tag.  In virtually every respect, I prefer its movement cousin, the Mark XX, which has a superior bracelet, more interesting hands and comparable finishing (only an opinion of course)...at just half the price.

The price point draws inevitable comparisons to the GP Laureato, a watch with a more storied history and movement to boot.  The IWC has the Genta halo of course and, while I do think this is one of the more attractive Gentas, I am probably in the minority in that belief.

The Ingenieur, if you just judge it as a watch, it's nice, but you don't really see the value. If you compare it against other items from the IWC catalogue, it would be extremely hard to see the value. However, if you judge it as a Genta-designed watch with an integrated bracelet, not only do you see the value (I'm looking at you Royal Oak and Nautilus), you really also start to appreciate its quality.

In short, the Ingenieur is the Phillz Coffee of watches.