IWC mechanical timepieces are handcrafted in their workshops in Schaffhausen with meticulous attention to detail. Their six watch families combine precision engineering with extraordinary and timeless design, bringing the finest technology and unique emotions to your wrist.
The first Special Pilot’s Watch left the IWC factory in 1936. It was the start of a close relationship between IWC Schaffhausen and aviation. Just 4 years later came the 52-calibre T.S.C. Big Pilot’s Watch, the first observer’s watch with a case measuring 55 millimetres in diameter. With the cockpit-like look of its design, it rapidly became a style icon and a model for all classic pilot’s watches. Its design was to provide IWC with the inspiration for the Mark 11, produced from 1948 onwards. This, the best known of the Pilot’s Watches from the Schaffhausen-based manufacturer, was originally built for the Royal Air Force and has been in constant use for more than 30 years.
In a history going back over 80 years, the Pilot’s Watch family has spawned many models that have long been among IWC’s most iconic models: The Big Pilot’s Watch, the Pilot’s Watch Mark XVIII, Top Gun, special models such as “Le Petit Prince” and “Antoine de Saint Exupéry”.
In the late 1930s, two Portuguese businessmen ordered wristwatches with the precision of marine chronometers from the International Watch Co. IWC. At the time, the only way of providing the desired precision was with a voluminous pocket watch movement. This was the reason why the watchmakers decided to take the 74- calibre hunter pocket watch movement, which fortunately has the crown on the right-hand side, and house it in a wristwatch case.
When the first “large wristwatch” left the factory, it was technically and aesthetically way ahead of its time. Technically, because the high quality pocket watch calibre had a larger balance that set new standards in terms of precision for wristwatches. Aesthetically, because back then popular taste demanded dainty, and wherever possible rectangular, wristwatches in the art deco style. Today, almost 80 years and countless watchmaking masterpieces later, the Portugieser watches are among IWC’s best-known timepieces.
For many decades now, the former fishing village of Portofino on the Gulf of Tigullio near Genoa, Italy, has epitomized the laidback way of life of southern Europe.
The classically elegant Portofino watch family is a subtle reflection of this lifestyle. The history of the Portofino watch family began in the late 1970s. Back then, IWC noted a steady demand for timeless, classic models. The elegant IWC Lépine pocket watch, Reference 5201,
served as the basis for the new watch collection: the dial was rotated through 90 degrees and the movement was equipped with a moon phase display.
And that was it: the new “pocket-watch-style wristwatch” Reference 5251, which was unveiled in 1984,
went by the name “Portofino”. Since then, the Portofino collection has been one of IWC’s most successful watch families – an expression of understatement
and good taste.
The first Da Vinci wrist watch was unveiled at the Basel Watch Show in 1969. But the most significant milestone in this watch family’s history is the Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar of 1985.
IWC’s head designer at the time, Kurt Klaus, came up with the ingenious idea of creating a mechanical chronograph with a perpetual calendar, moon phase display and four-digit year display. For the user, it was simplicity itself: the complicated mechanism was adjusted using only the crown. Launched during the quartz crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, this Perpetual Calendar catapulted IWC into the top league of Haute Horlogerie.
The 19 overlapping circles illustrate a wealth of geometrical and universal laws. Even Leonardo da Vinci took inspiration from the “Flower of Life” and studied its highly geometrical properties.
The first Ingenieur model wowed watch connoisseurs with its bidirectional Pellaton winding system, which was much more efficient than conventional movements. It also featured protection against magnetic fields, which remains a key feature of Ingenieur models to this day. In the early 1970s, Gérald Genta designed the legendary Ingenieur SL, adopting a distinctly modernist, technical approach.
The Ingenieur collection, which was completely redesigned in 2013, is inspired by the world of FORMULA ONE. The materials used – titanium aluminide, carbon, ceramic and titanium – are frequently found in this motor sport. Technical highlights in this watch family include the patented constant-force tourbillon, the quick-action switch and large double-digit displays for both the date and month. The new Ingenieur models from 2017 once again clearly draw on the design code of the 1950s and 1960s, as evinced by the simple round case and a dial featuring striking hands and indices with luminescent elements.
In 1967, the growing popularity of scuba diving prompted the company to introduce the first Aquatimer. It was pressure-resistant to 20 bar and equipped with an internal rotating bezel that displayed dive time. In 1982 came the first diver’s watch that was pressure-resistant to 200 bar, the Ocean 2000, which caused quite a stir. The technical ingenuity of IWC’s engineers inspired them to develop the GST Deep One, which featured a mechanical depth gauge, in 1999.
In 2009, IWC brought a completely revised Aquatimer collection with watches sporting a chunky external rotating bezel onto the market. Watches in the current collection are equipped with the innovative external/internal rotating bezel, making them even more functional. This mechanism combines the advantages of an internal rotating bezel with the ease of use of an external rotating bezel that, thanks to the SafeDive system, can be moved easily by a diver wearing gloves or with cold fingers. With even more in-house calibres as well as the digital perpetual calendar, mechanical depth gauge and sensational pressure-resistance to 200 bar, the watch family has also advanced to the highest stages of development in haute horlogerie.
