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The History of IWC Watches
Wouldn't it be marvelous to be able to experience the rich diversity of activities taking place on planet Earth both with hindsight and foresight; to create scenarios and to follow the possible outcomes under different sets of circumstances?
Only then could we know what would have taken place in the town of Schaffhausen without such entirely unlike people as Florentine Ariosto Jones, Johann Heinrich Moser, Ferdinand F. Seeland and Johannes Rauschenbach.
Given this power over time, we would be able to discover whether this hitherto horologically insignificant city on the banks of the Rhine would have given its name to the dials and movements of the finest watches under a different set of commercial pioneers.
Since we have no such power, we have to take things as they are and be content with a dazzlingly successful company history which dates precisely back to the year 1841.
It was then that the initial actor in what was to become the "Schaffhausen Show", Florentine A. Jones, made his first appearance.
On 15 February a child of that name first saw the light of day in the American
town of Rumney, on the southwest flank of the White Mountains.
His forefathers were among the Pilgrim Fathers who took the Mayflower route to the New World in 1620, which meant that he had plenty of pioneering spirit in his genes.
There was also a family connection with watchmaking, for two of his great-uncles worked as clock-repairers in Concord.
It thus seems reasonable to suppose that Florentine acquired some watchmaking capabilities in that town.
His military-service papers, at any rate, describe him as a watchmaker.
At the age of 14 Jones left his hometown for Boston where - except during his years under arms from 1861 to 1864 - he worked for different watchmakers.
In 1869, F. A. Jones turned up in Schaffhausen, although the watch factory that was later to be called the international Watch Co. had already been founded in 1868.
What inspired him about this particular place is no longer known, but it was here that Jones decided to produce low-cost watches for the American market, and he had brought plenty of American spirit and know-how for the purpose.
But the American manufacturer, thanks to industrialized watchmaking, had outdistanced their Swiss competitors, who where still making watches by hand.
It was on the banks of the Rhine that the second protagonist crossed Jones' path. Johann Heinrich Moser, also a watchmaker by profession, had succeeded against stiff opposition in profitably harnessing the enormous energy potential of the Rhine Falls.
Moser was desperately seeking tenants for his purpose-built industrial buildings when he came across the restless but far-seeing American with high-flying projects.
The rental agreement for the first production facility directly connected to hydraulic power was quickly signed.
In principle nothing more stood in the way of the series production of watch movements.
Two years later the completion of the first pocket-watch movements was proudly announced.
The target of producing at least 10,000 watch movements a year for export to far-off America turned out to be unrealistic.
Money became tighter, aggravated by the Worldwide economic crisis triggered by the Vienna bank and stock-exchange collapse of 1873.
In 1875, Jones nicely evaded the consequences of the first bankruptcy proceedings by Ieaving the country.
The new director, Seeland, also an American, proposed a far-reaching financial restructuring plan.
But recovery was only skin deep and in 1879 the business was once more faced with liquidation.
Seeland too, returned hastily to America.
At this point, the machinery-manufacturer, Rauschenbach, made a decisive move.
He personally acquired the ill-fated firm for just 280,000 Swiss francs - half its real value.
The International Wath Company thereby entered into family ownership for 100 years, the last seven of which as a joint stock company.
The rest is quickly told.
In 1978 the firm was acquired by Instek A.G., a Company belonging to the German tachometer-makers, VDO.
Since 1991, the latter has formed part of Germany's Mannesmann Group, which has three fingers in the watchmaking pie as ultimate owners of IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre and A. Lange & Söhne through the "Les Manufactures Horlogères" (LMH) holding company.
The sometimes volatile past of the International Wath Company does not belie the fact that it has ranked among the masters of the art of watchmaking for more than 125 years.
The celebrated "Jones" caliber or the avant-garde "Pall-weber" model testify to its skills in manufacturing pocket-watches.
IWC wrist-watches have been made since 1914.
Among their earliest were officers' wristwatches, fitted with the reliable caliber 64.
In around 1935, IWC proposed the first pilot's wristwatch.
Its black dial, large, luminous numerals and hands, and rotating bezel with a marker made it a useful navigational instrument.
At the outbreak of World War II, IWC developed a professional airman's watch with a diameter of 55mm.
Like the first pilot's watch, the "Mark X" was a wrist-watch made for military use.
Today considered cult watches, they accompanied countless pilots into the skies from 1948.
Civilian airline captains, as well as military pilots, entrusted their valuable time to the "Mark XI."
From 1950 IWC made headlines with totally new automatic movements.
The innovative caliber 85 took over the pilot-watch functions and underwent continual improvements in the following years.
IWC didn't do too badly either in mechanical complications.
These are demonstrated in the 1985 "Da Vinci" automatic chronograph and perpetual calendar, and the "II Destiero Scafusia" which cases up a split-seconds chronograph, a perpetual calendar, a minute-repeater and a tourbillon.
A wristwatch can hardly offer more.[/B]
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