IWC - International Watch Co.
IWC - International Watch Co. was founded in 1868 by Florentine Jones, 27 year old American master watchmaker from Boston. The IWC Watch Company was established at Schaffhausen in Switzerland. Along the Rhine Jones hopes to benefit from the newly built hydro-electric facilities necessary to carry the production. Jones was fascinated by the idea of the unification of America with expertise in the automation of the legendary Swiss precision. He wasted no time installing the machine tools for the most part imported from the United States straight to the Schaffhausen.
First Jones’ caliber, was the very first movement manufactured by IWC contained a wealth of advanced features. Including elongated index to regulate the balance hairspring and a bimetallic cut balance to compensate for temperature fluctuations.
From 1895 to 1900 IWC saw major sales increases all around. In Germany, the company saw an increase from 553,500 to 805,000 francs. Russia went from a measly 29,400 to an incredible 182,300 francs. These remarkable sales increases were due largely to the acumen of the company’s management as well as the incredible staff of employees. Jones’ master plan was to export its Swiss made watches in the United States. But he was stopped by extremely high import tariffs on finished watches. The general history of the state of the IWC for many decades, continues to be agitated as he went from one crisis to another and it was not until 1978, when the IWC was taken by VDO, which in turn was acquired by the giant multi-national group Mannesman, the CBI has been on solid financial ground in a position to move forward and able to compete with its own French-Swiss competitors in the western region.
After years of fine and even remarkable service and highest level of craftsmanship, the company celebrated its 125th anniversary in style with 300 employees. And in the spirit of the celebration there were 1000 Portuguese watches with the 982 calibre pocket watch movements made in stainless steel, 500 in gold, and 250 in platinum. Today the company continues the production of innovative watches and remarkable craftmanship. In 2001, IWC made a the watch collectors forum. This was the first brand in question forum for enthusiasts of haute horlogerie. Unfortunately, the company also saw the death of Gunter Blumlein in 2001, was the chief of the CBI of Swiss watchmaking after crisis if the 1970s. Despite this, the company has never been stronger and continues to the excellence of its watches in the development through an incredible team. Nowadays in Internet there are plenty of IWC Replica watches, they are much cheaper but their level of finishing is slightly weak.
