Page 16 - The Bite Magazine - Issue 11

IWC Schaffhausen
IWC celebrates the launch of their 2014 Portofino
watch collection with exclusive imagery by celebrated
photographer Peter Lindbergh. Jada Brookes finds out
the story behind the collection.
Since the late 19th century, Swiss watch
manufacturer IWC Schaffhausen has been
creating masterpieces of haute horlogerie
that combine precision engineering with exclusive
design. Their passion for innovation and technical
inventiveness has afforded them an international
presence that extends far across the globe. IWC
which is the acronym for International Watch
Company was established in 1868, thanks to an
American engineer and watchmaker, Florentine
Ariosto Jones, who at the age of 27 was the deputy
director and manager of the E. Howard Watch
and Clock Company in Boston. Florentine decided
to travel east across the Atlantic to Switzerland
with the intention of combining the outstanding
craftsmanship of the Swiss with modern engineering
technology from overseas and his own pioneering
spirit to manufacture high quality watches for the
American market. His plans were immediately met
with scepticism simply because the skilled workers
in the Geneva region and the remote valleys of
western Switzerland had been working from their
homes or in tiny workshops since the 17th century.
However, his journey to a country renowned for its
prestigious watch-making skills was not totally in vain
upon meeting Heinrich Moser, an industrialist from
Schaffhausen. In 1875, the current headquarters of
IWC was built on the banks of the River Rhine and
ten years later, the first watches with a digital hours
and minutes display were created.
bitewatches