“AMERICAN PIONEERING SPIRIT MEETS SWISS TRADITION.” The heritage of IWC is a story seldom told, and so most people would see the roots of this company that so dominantly names the city of its origins in its name. And indeed, Schaffhausen, Switzerland is the place where in 1868 a company began a story that is still being written Production of small parts, steel (“beaches today. The founder, however, acier”) early 1880s was a man from Rumney, New Hampshire, USA. It was his American pioneering spirit and entrepreneurship that would start IWC, the acronym of the International Watch Company, Schaffhausen. The son of a cobbler, Florentine Ariosto “F.A.” Jones’s interest in watchmaking was the result of the influence of two greatuncles who worked in the field. It opened the doors to F.A’s first job in the at E. Howard Watch & Clock Co. in Roxbury, Massachusetts, followed by a collaboration with the watchmaker G.P. Reed in Boston. At the end of the Civil War, in 1865, the idea of becoming a watch manufacturer in Switzerland formed in the head of Jones. And after a few unsuccessful contacts in Geneva, it was in Schaffhausen, far from the watchmaking centres of French-speaking Switzerland but with a centuries-old horological Special Pilot Watch (1936) tradition, that Jones found what was needed for the launch of this industrial enterprise: A hydroelectric plant in the Rhine, built by Johann Heinrich Moser (watchmaker and industrial pioneer), would provide the power for the machines at the future IWC factory. In 1868, the “International Watch Co.” - international,
because the sales offices were in New York - was founded in Schaffhausen, combining advanced American production technologies with the skilled craftsmanship for which Swiss watchmakers were famous. Jones’s goal: to manufacture pocket watch movements of the highest possible quality. The company’s reputation was established from the start with its first movement, the eponymous Jones calibre. The growing company soon had to leave its first factory premises and in 1874/5 a new factory was built. It is the company’s headquarters to this day, expanded in 2005 and 2008, on the banks of the River Rhine. The company had 196 employees at the time. Ten years later, in 1880, Jones’ returned to the United States and Johannes Rauschenbach-Vogel, an engine-manufacturer from Schaffhausen, took over the company. After his death in 1881, his son Johannes Rauschenbach-Schenk took over the helm and in 1885, introduceed the Pallweber pocket watches, with their revolutionary digital display for hours and minutes. The end of the 19th century saw the appearance of IWC’s first wristwatches featuring the company’s small 64-calibre ladies’ pocket watch movement. In 1885, IWC demonstrated its innovative spirit in the Pallweber pocket watches, with their revolutionary digital display for hours and minutes. The end of the 19th century saw the appearance of IWC’s first wristwatches featuring the 64-calibre pocket watch movement. 1900-1944 In 1903, two words were added that have been part of the brand ever since. “Probus Scafusia”, which can best be translated as “good quality” or sometimes “the honest watch.” Following the death of Johannes Rauschenbach-Schenk in 1905, Schaffhausen industrialist Ernst Jakob Homberger took over the company. This era saw the development of new calibres designed specifically for wristwatches (1915), and the birth of two watch families which are still true icons to this day. The first “Spezialuhr für Flieger” (1936) established the tradition of producing Pilot’s Watches in Schaffhausen, which, thanks to their unmistakable design, are still popular across the world today. As Portuguese importers ordered a series of large wristwatches with high-precision pocket watch calibres, the first Portugieser model left IWC’s workshops in 1939. In 1940, in response to high demand, IWC developed the Big Pilot’s Watch 52 T.S.C. with a central seconds hand. 1945-1949 The post-war years were characterized by the increased use of technology in people’s everyday lives. More and more appliances created magnetic fields which can negatively impact the accuracy of mechanical watches. It is during this time that Albert Pellaton became Technical Director at IWC Schaffhausen. Among his inventions are the extremely accurate 89 calibre (1946), or the soft-iron inner case, which protects watch movements against magnetic fields. Both innovations can be found in the Pilot’s Watch Mark 11 (1948). Pellaton also developed a particularly efficient bidirectional pawlwinding system, replacing the traditional reciprocal gearing. This first automatic winding mechanism (85 calibre) became a patented proprietary development by IWC and shot to fame
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