IWC Schaffhausen
A timepiece from IWC Schaffhausen is made to last for generations. With their unique craftsmanship skills and profound historical knowledge, our vintage watchmakers take pride in restoring and servicing every watch that has been manufactured in our workshops since 1868.
Restoring a vintage timepiece is a complex task that requires a great wealth of training, experience, and manual skills, many of which have become extremely rare. The goal of restoration is always to preserve the watch in its original condition. This applies to the technical aspects, such as the movement and complications, and aesthetics like the visual appearance of the case, dial, and hands. Every project starts with a comprehensive diagnosis and assessment of your watch by our vintage watchmakers. They then prepare a detailed cost estimate, considering your requirements and requests. Due to the enormous complexity involved, restoration can take anywhere from several months to more than a year.
During restoration, the case, dial, and hands are carefully refurbished to meet the original criteria from the time the watch was crafted. Many timepieces have been handed down through generations and hold a high emotional value for their owners. If you wish, we will preserve the signs of wear and the patina that lend your timepiece its character. A particular challenge is the restoration of the dial. Because dials are often oxidized, their refurbishment calls for many individual and complex working steps. Thanks to a sophisticated working technique, we are even able to restore old enamel dials to their full beauty.
We always strive to preserve and refurbish as many original parts as possible. However, it can happen that parts have been replaced by non-authentic parts over the years, or that repairs have been carried out poorly by non-IWC workshops. In these cases, we replace the parts in question with original spare parts from the respective period. If such parts are no longer available, our watchmakers will painstakingly manufacture them by hand using old machines and craftsmanship. One example is crafting a tiny pivot or balance staff with a watchmaker’s lathe. In addition, the restoration of a watch case often requires elaborate goldsmith work to refashion the component to its intended symmetry.
To achieve the best result in a restoration project, our vintage watchmakers have access to the original documentation of all calibers and watches ever produced in Schaffhausen and our extensive archive with millions of original spare parts.