Trust me, I am an Ingenieur.

We all know the story. Well most people do. The legendary Gerald Genta, who does not look back at his past designs nor look at the designs of others, so as to always remain original and authentic. He is believed to have came up with 100,000 watch designs, which already seem to be formed in his head before he even started drawing them. So much so that the designs seldom undergo changes unless due to technical issues when producing the watch. Oh, and he likes rap music.

A revered design genius of his time, or perhaps ahead, Gerald Genta was commissioned by IWC in the 1970s to give their Ingenieur a new reductionist design and shortly(1976 actually), the Ingenieur SL "Jumbo" was born.

Housing the movement within a soft-iron inner cage and integrating the watch case with a H-links bracelet, the Ingenieur SL was a testament of technological advancement and innovation in watch making at that time. Now many years later, IWC recovered the original Ingenieur SL drawing within their archives, and gotten it authenticated by his surviving wife, Evelyne Genta.

Thereafter, IWC began their arduous work in recreating this Gerald Genta classic, and bringing to the world today, the IWC Ingenieur 40 Automatic. I can go on about the improvements being made, but I guess the pictures can do their work. :)

I have seen many comments online about this watch, mostly talking about how it shares the same IWC manufactured 32111 calibre as the Mark XX and yet asking for twice the price. Yet fans of this watch will not think twice about getting one on their wrist!

However, let us not forget that besides the Patek Philippe Nautilus and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, the IWC Ingenieur is the only integrated bracelet sports watch to bear the Gerald Genta DNA. Adding to the fact that it is considered largely attainable, I would say the price is somewhat justified. Tell me what you think in the comments!

Now from a small wrister perspective...

First of all, No one here reading this has a smaller wrist than me. I have a girl's wrist, measuring 14.5cm (5.7 inch) and this has proven to be a watch lover's nightmare. I have been to blogs, sites and videos that do not give the lug to lug measurements as they claim that it doesn't matter as much. But, I assure you it does matter to me 80% of the time. (20% of the time I give in to impulse!)

Case diameters more than 40mm and lug to lugs more than 47mm are tell tale signs a watch may just not be for me. So when it comes to integrated sports watches, I am very concerned about the lug to lug distance as we all know, the part where the bracelet curves down the wrist will add a few millimeters.

Hence it is good to know that the lug to lug distance of the IWC Ingenieur is a modest 45.7mm, giving some room to spare. Since there is no micro-adjustment on the bracelet (I read an official one is coming), I had some difficulty getting the perfect fit. I ended up first removing four links which ended up too tight, to finally three links, making the watch somewhat looking loose on my wrist.

However given the sunny weather where I live, it should end up fitting snugly when I am outdoors. When indoors with air-conditioning, the watch slides down over the bone on my wrist, something I don't like. Looking at my wrist from the sides also reveal some ugly gaps which only I can see, so now, I simply stop looking.

With a thin case profile of just 10.8mm, the Ingenieur is simply delightful to wear. The edges of the bracelet are well chamfered and polished and it wears very premium. True it feels a little loose, but I guess I could live with that. I also cant stop turning my wrist against the light to catch the different shades of that beautiful aqua dial. IWC certainly got this colour right. I really hope they won't spam more colors in the future as that would just sort of 'cheapen' the collection.

All in all, due to a lack of micro-adjustment, I was unable to get a perfect fit, but my senses tell me the Ingenieur will only look its best in a butterfly fold clasp, and I intend to keep mine that way. I guess I will give it a 7/10 for wearability based on my experience. Normal wristers, do share with me your experience!

Reference: IWC 2023 Collection Manual

Ingenieur 40 Automatic, IW328908