IWC
Breaking New Grounds
Dating as far back as 1868, IWC was founded by an American watchmaker, Florentine Ariosto, and Swiss, Johann Heinrich Moser, in the Schaffhausen (German-speaking part of Switzerland). Their name stands for International Watch Company.
Throughout the 20th century, the company introduced many innovative watches which are a class of its own. This has attracted the collectors to their brand name.
They started creating wrist watches for both the British Royal Navy and the Imperial German Navy in the 1900. A major breakthrough in their invention was an anti-magnetic system that revolutionized pilot watches in the 1940s.
In 1954, they created their proprietary automatic-rewinding mechanism and included it within their Ingenieur collection. In 1985, they made their next proprietary perpetual-calendar system that has accuracy up to 500 years.
They broke the record in diving watches in 1998 when they launched the Aquatimer which has a water-resistance of 2000m.
Then in 2000, they created their 7-days power reserve automatic movement known as Caliber 5000. It was incorporated within their Pellaton winding system. It was introduced into their Big Pilot’s Watch thereafter in 2003.
This is their pilot watch collection under the Fliegerchronograph brand series. The 43mm case was crafted from a single block of steel and houses their anti-magnetic mechanism. There are other pilot watches from the company to take note of:
The Grande Complication was introduced in 1990 which consisted of 659 parts and was the most complicated timepiece during then. However, the Grande Complication is still very much sought limited edition. It integrates perpetual calendar, chronograph, and minute repeater within its complication that has an anti-magnetic case. It is definitely a unique and interesting collection item.
Another collection, the GST sports watches, was introduced in 1997. The recent designs under this collection are GST Perpetual Calendar and GST Split-second. Both designs incorporate automatic winding movement with a shock resistant and anti-magnetic mechanism that in accordance to NICHS 91-10 standards.
Another fantastic creation by IWC is the Portuguese collection (started since 1940). One of its most interesting introduction was the Portuguese Perpetual Calendar, a complication that has the Caliber 5000 (seven day power reserve) with Pellaton winding mechanism. It also has a new moonphase display patented by the company. The accuracy of this perpetual calendar is amazing with only a deviation of 1 day in 577 years.
Check out the other Portuguese collections:
Return from IWC back to Mens Watches Guide
| Mens Watches | A. Lange & Sohne | Arnold & Son | Baume & Mercier |
| Boucheron | Blancpain | Breitling | Breguet |
| Chopard | Chronoswiss | Concord | Daniel Roth |
| Daniel JeanRichard | De Bethune | Ebel | De Witt |
| Dubey Schaldenbrand | Eberhard & Co. | European Company Watch |
| FP Journe | Franck Muller | Girard Perregaux | Graham |
| Hermes | Invicta | IWC | Jaeger LeCoultre |
| Jean Mairet & Gillman | Locman | Omega | Panerai |
| Parmigiani | Patek Philippe | Rolex | | 
