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IWC Porsche Design Compass Watch History - HODINKEE

IWC Porsche Design Compass Watch History - HODINKEE

IWC Porsche Design Compass Watch History - HODINKEE
Sep 25, 2022 7 mins, 9 secs

Photo by Mark Kauzlarich, watch from the collection of John Goldberger.

I think about that each time I see an advertisement that touts the life of adventure you could live if only you had "this watch." A cynic might say that such watches are a solution looking for a problem.

That's why I have such a love for the IWC Porsche Design Compass Watch, or Kompassuhr.

While important in both IWC and Porsche Design history, in today's era of GPS and smartphones, the watch is anachronistic – the perfect analog watch for an "Explorer" like me who apparently can't explore his way out of a wet paper bag.

Ferdinand Alexander "Butzi" Porsche, the grandson of Porsche founder Ferdinand Porsche and designer of the Porsche 911, had just departed the family business and founded Porsche Design Studio (now Studio F. A. Porsche).

Porsche, the company's second watch was designed to fulfill a more personal request from "Butzi" Porsche.

Schwamkrug started at the then-Porsche Design Studio nine years after the release of the Compass watch, so to elucidate the watch's story he reached out to former colleagues for more information, resulting in a trove of never-before-seen photos and stories from the brand's early days.

It's hard to imagine that Porsche didn't know about strap-mounted compasses or using the sun to way-find with a watch (a system with a wide range of inaccuracies).

Porsche who once said, "design is not simply art, it is elegance of function." Watches were no exception.

"He had a watch collection and was very, very, focused on the details.

Porsche never regarded a watch as a piece of jewelry, a watch is a timepiece," Schwamkrug says.

Photos of a later compass  for the IWC Porsche Design Compass Watch courtesy IWC.

Elegant, functional, and forward-thinking, the watch was "Porsche Design.".

In September 1977 Porsche Design took a meeting in Schaffhausen with the International Watch Company.

An early design of Compass Watch, courtesy of Studio F.A.

The two companies had been courting each other, so as Porsche Design arrived at IWC headquarters with a nearly ready-made design for a new watch, IWC wanted to show that only they were up for the challenge. .

Installing a compass on a watch seems easy until you remember a compass is just a magnet on a free-floating pivot and magnets don't play well with watch movements.

But, in a stroke of luck for Porsche Design, a classified project was underway at IWC to provide antimagnetic movements and watches for a client with life-and-death consequences: the German Navy's anti-mine specialists, the Minentaucher.

The Minetaucher needed a truly antimagnetic dive watch so they could approach and diffuse underwater mines without accidentally triggering them.

"In the end, the mine divers' watch caliber was used inside the Ocean 2000 Porsche Design divers watch as well.".

IW351901 mine divers watch to the German Navy, but Porsche Design got their new reference 3510 Compass watch on the market in less than a year from their first meeting with IWC, releasing both black and "NATO olive" green watches in 1978.

The first and most classic reference of the IWC Porsche Design Compass, 3510, was released in 1978, in both black and "NATO olive" green.

The black reference 3510 is the most common by far but it's unclear the ratio or the total number of production.

The watch measured 39mm wide and 12mm high with a case and compass that were watertight to 30 meters.

Watch from the collection of John Goldberger.

The most obvious change over the watches' production was the bracelet.

One of these watches appears occasionally in photos from our friend John Goldberger's collection.

After seven years of moderate success with the reference 3510, IWC and Porsche Design released the reference 3551 black compass watch in 1985, with a bold moonphase aperture at 12:00 on the dial.

To account for the moonphase, the logos were reduced to just "IWC Porsche Design" in block text on two lines beneath the aperture.

Regardless, a purpose-built exploration watch with moonphase makes the reference 3551 a little goofy and all the more iconic for it.

In 1991, IWC and Porsche Design announced their biggest change to the Compass Watch, releasing the reference 3511 in all its titanium glory.

It's a very soft material,"Schwamkrug says, "So that's why IWC decided from that point on, all Porsche Design watches have to be in titanium.

But the compass watch was instilled as a classic part of the collection.".

Released in 2011, nearly 15 years after the last IWC and Porsche Design Compass collaboration, and after the end of the two companies' partnership.

The case and bracelet are made out of titanium (the clasp is at least partially stainless steel) and enlarged to a more modern 42mm and 14.6mm thick, but back in the original black color and placement of the words "Porsche Design" at 12:00 on the dial and the addition of "Compass" in all caps at 6:00, similar to the reference 3510 dial layout but with different font.

The most interesting design component, however, is that the compass housing is transparent and there is no bottom to the portion of the case holding the watch, meaning that instead of a display case back for a movement, you get one for the compass.

Sultan Qaboos bin Said wearing a IWC Porsche Design Compass Watch ref.

However, reference 3510 was an apparent favorite, and he was pictured wearing the watch in official government photos?

Looking for guidance on what might fit the Sultan's tastes, his butler replied that His Majesty had always regretted giving away "a black watch with a compass underneath" which Youé confirmed as reference 3510.

It's no surprise, then, that at least a handful of compass watches were emblazoned with the Khanjar, reference 3510 in black and green.

Curiously, these watches had cases stamped reference 3551 but lacked a moonphase, suggesting that they were possibly leftover cases turned into watches built on special order for His Majesty.

Another model made by IWC for the Middle Eastern market and by far my personal grail (as someone who studied the Middle East and Arabic in college) is reference 3510 "Mecca Indicator" or "Qibla compass" which was designed to help observant Muslims find the direction of prayer (qibla) toward the Kaaba in Mecca, the most sacred site in Islam.

The watch was made in both black and olive green.

If world history or religion isn't your thing then you might be interested in hunting down what is potentially the rarest Compass Watch: the solid-gold 18-karat yellow gold reference 3510 with a carved bark-like finish.

Its origin seems to be a bit of a mystery to both Porsche Design and IWC but David Seyffer says that the understanding was these watches, whenever they were made, were targeted at the growing Middle Eastern market.

The compass inside the IWC Porsche Desigun ref.

Photo by Eneuri Acosta, from the collection of Porsche Design.

"If you have this piece in your hand, it weighs like 250 grams or something," Schwamkrug says, who has handled the example in the Porsche Design collection in Zell am See, Austria.

The watch didn't find buyers as quickly as hoped, so it was quietly discontinued with less than 10 made.

Sometimes the coolness of a watch is just hard to argue with, especially for the price!

Unlike another famously-coated watch from the period, the Heuer Monaco "Dark Lord", neither the reference 3510 and 3551 have the same rarity, nor do they have the pop-culture prestige that the Porsche Design Chronograph 1 gained after featuring in Top Gun or its practicality.

At the end of the day, that makes the watch iconic and a very important watch Porsche Design

Look to get a black reference 3510 or 3551 for anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 depending on price

Finding a watch with a box and papers with these watches seems uncommon, so I'd suggest forgoing the search to just enjoy the watch

The heritage reissue seems to come up around the same price as a good vintage 3510, a heck of a deal for a neo-vintage titanium watch

Just as with signed Rolex and Pateks, the more unusual variants of these Porsche Design watches will likely rise in value as more people understand their history and rarity

With the price of gold and this watch's rarity, with at least one already in the collection of Porsche Design, your guess is as good as mine

The HODINKEE Shop features a selection of pre-owned and vintage IWC and Porsche Design watches

To learn more about IWC and Porsche Design, visit their websites

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