From the early 1980’s until 2006, IWC Schaffhausen used mechanical movements based on Swatch-owned ETA and its subsidiary Valjoux movements. Therefore, the Caliber 30110 is actually a modified ETA 2892A2, while the Caliber 79230/79320/79350 is a modified ETA/Valjoux 7750.
The 50000 Caliber Family
In 2000, after five years of development, IWC introduced a new in-house made Caliber 50000 that combines the escapement of IWC’s iconic Caliber 89 with the well-known winding system of the Caliber 8541 in a completely new movement. This caliber also marked the revival of an IWC hallmark – the Pellaton pawl-winding system.
The Caliber 50000 combines the best elements of IWC’s history from special elements of the pocket watch tradition to the manual wind wristwatch tradition and the automatic winding tradition.
Contrary to most of the new watch mechanisms that oscillate at the rapid frequency, the Caliber 50000 has the leisurely going rate of a pocket watch – only 18,000 beats per hour. Considering that fact, it has the virtue of less wear at the trade-off of less resolution, but not less accuracy. Also, it has an escapement derived from IWC’s historic Caliber 89 manual movement, with a screwed balance and a Breguet overcoil.