IWC Schaffhausen

Any watchmaker who is allowed to work at one of the benches in the “Complications” department at IWC in Schaffhausen has definitely made it to the top of his trade. Because this is where the company makes the intricate mechanisms on which its fame rests. Leading the way is the perpetual calendar, invented in 1985 by Kurt Klaus, which goes from one success to the next. The displays for the weekday, month and year, not to mention moon phase, are ingeniously simple and will go doing their job for centuries without any external interference. All the owner – or more precisely, owners, because there are likely to be several – has to do is look after it and have it regularly serviced.

At IWC, eternity, so to speak, is all in the hands of Patricia May, 25. She’s been making the “Perpetual”, as she and her colleagues in the workshops call it, for six years. But one thing at a time. She first assembles the calendar module, which consists of 30 minuscule wheels, arbours and screws, together with three discs, each with a circle of numerals, that display all the combinations required by the calendar. When finished, the complication is just 2 millimetres high and has a diameter of 30 millimetres in the Da Vinci and 37.8 millimetres in the Portuguese. Next, the mechanism is screwed firmly into position on the movement and, finally, equipped with the moon disc and century slide, which, as its name suggests, only moves once every 100 years.

After about six hours, the display is up for the big test. “Will it switch, or won’t it?” The atmosphere is one of tense concentration. The numerals slot into place, and a look of relieved satisfaction crosses Patricia May’s face. Things don’t always go quite so smoothly: a wheel can easily jam, or the discs may not run absolutely true. If this happens, she has to readjust the mechanism until a quick run-through of the calendar functions indicates that it is now ready to do its job of displaying the correct date for all eternity.

For the young watchmaker, this is always a special moment. She first hit upon the idea of her vocation in a newspaper article. “I had no great expectations when I came for the taster,” she recalls. But it all worked out, and shortly afterwards she embarked on a four-year apprenticeship. Since then, watchmaking has won a place in her heart. Filing, grinding, chamfering, polishing and adjusting parts until they fit smoothly together is all part of her day’s work, which starts at 6.30 in the morning and ends at 4.

“I really love working with delicate things,” she says, and you take her at her word when you see her working on a part: her long, slender, elegant fingers seem made for the job. Which is why it is all the more surprising to learn that she has another passion that involves radically different qualities: climbing, on indoor walls and outdoors. For Patricia May, alpine climbing is all about guts and adrenalin: the perfect balance to watchmaking, which calls for peace, quiet and unwavering concentration. Even here, though, she could well imagine taking on a major new challenge: in this case, the Aquatimer Deep Two.