IWC Spitfire Durability?

[leopardprey]

Looking at getting a Spitfire UTC. Dealer here has one of last year's models with the Black Face. Like the look and also the fit. Question is how durable and rugged is it? Good movement (what caliber?)? Waterproofness? (I know says good for 60 meters, but what does that mean exactly- OK for long hard swims, surface water sports, and travel in hard rain?) How about shock proofness for sport activities. Appreciate the answers. Do not know much about IWC's reliability issues. Seems the watch should be pretty rugged as it is a pilots watch? Like to do all my research before put down $4000+ for a watch that will own for a long time. Thanks.

[Timascus]

Admired IWC for years. I've been looking at a Spitfire (3717?) for a while too. Originally I was thinking silver face/white letters but I ended up going with the opposite. I am expecting a doppelchrono to come in at the end of next week, "black" face, 42mm. Mine has a strap so I'll have to take it off for swimming and water sports

I've been doing some reading both at the IWC member area and other forums (TZ and WN). Something I came across last week was:

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Setting time correctly (3717 manual) Mar 16, 2007 - 03:21 PM

I was reading through the manual and found that the instructions to set the time is incomplete. Here's the instructions but I'd recommend adding a few lines (*).

Setting your watch correctly (pg 20)

You can set your watch correctly as follows:
- Release the crown by turning it to the left
- Wind the movement until it is fully wound (ca. 30 rotations of the crown)
- Pull out crown to position 2 (*)
- forward time to 6:30 (*)
- Push crown to position 1
- Turning the crown to the right will change the date indicator in steps. Set it to yesterday's date.
- Turning the crown to the left will change the day indicator in steps. Set it to yesterday's day.
- Pull out crown to position 2, which will stop the movement. Recommend to stop the movement when red second hand reaches 12 o'clock position (*)
- Turn the hands forwards until the day/date indicator changes to today's day/date. The hands will now be between 0000 and 0100.
- Now turn the hands forwards to the precise time; you should move the minute hand a few minute lines beyond the time to be set. Then position the minute hand by moving it gently backwards until it is exactly above the correct minute line. (*)
- Push the crown to position 0 to restart the movement.
- Now push in the crown to position X and secure it by turning it to the right at the same time.

Note. the additional information is found within the manual (pp 18 n 19).

I think this would be more complete because if one just blindly follow the instructions, there might be a chance that the day/date is changed when the time is between 2000 and 0200, thereby risk damage to the mechanism. Also, if you don't forward the time a few minutes ahead of the time to be set and then reset backwards, you might have a situation which I found myself in, i.e. when the second hand passes 12 o'clock, the minute hand is actually in between the minute markers.

Hope this will help new 3717 owners. Please don't mind me if this sounds too basic for the experts here.