IWC Schaffhausen

COLLECTORS’ FORUM
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Forum articles

FIVE GREAT DA VINCI MODELS
I’m still on a relentless pursuit of collecting five great models from each of IWC’s product lines. I’ve cast my lot for Ingenieur, Portuguieser, Pilot and Aquatimer models, so now I need to turn to the Da Vinci models.

Five Great IWC Diving Watches
I’ve picked my favorite Ingenieur, Portugieser and Pilot’s Watches from IWC. Now I need to go shopping for the best diving watches IWC has ever produced. Once again, it’s not an easy task; there are too many alluring models from which to choose.

Five Great Pilot’s Watches
I’ve already picked my five Ingenieurs and five Portugieser wristwatches. For each group, I’ve spent only about 100,000 US Dollars or Swiss Francs. This time, I thought picking five great IWC Pilot’s Watches would be easy. But it became a perplexing task: too many watches and too little time!

Five Great Portugiesers
Every watch lover’s fantasy may be to own more watches. And one way to play out that fantasy would be by dreaming of watches to own. But truth be told, even dreaming is not always easy. There are too many great watches manufactured by IWC, and that can be a high-class problem.

“OCEAN BUNDS” SURFACE AT IWC MUSEUM
Martin Dohrmann wasn't a watch collector when he strolled into a vintage and used watch fair for the first time, back in 1995. In fact he hadn't really thought much about watches at all until he saw the newspaper ad for that Uhrenbörse at the local university's cafeteria.

Collecting Five Great Ingenieurs
The name Ingenieur is a fitting one to be used by IWC. Naming a watch line as Ingenieur was a stroke of genius, both in its simplicity and for what it represents. As a hypothetical exercise, imagine being given 100,000 (in Dollars or Swiss francs) with the entire purpose being to acquire five – and only five – Ingenieur examples. Which models should they be?

Service as an Attitude
As the former head of service, Andreas greatly enhanced IWC service during his tenure. A watch guy himself, he was a good friend of many IWC collectors and made it a point to attend collectors’ meetings, especially those held during SIHH. Andreas cared what people thought and he wanted to convey his knowledge to others.

HISTORY OF IWC’S PORTUGIESER WATCHES REFERENCE 325
Only a few watches in the history of watchmaking have become iconic for watch collectors worldwide, undoubtedly, one of these watches is the IWC Portugieser Reference 325. Many years after its initial debut, this watch has become the archetype for one of the most successful contemporary IWC watch families.

The start of a complicated Era
On Thursday, 11 April 1985, the Basel Watch and Jewellery Show saw the unveiling of a watchmaking sensation. At a time when only a handful of devotees and distinguished collectors believed in the qualities of a mechanical wristwatch and the mass markets favoured the flood of low-cost quartz watches, IWC launched a timepiece that fully embraced classical watchmaking and all its complicated challenges: the Da Vinci Ref. 3750.

ten years of iwc and laureus
The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation was established in 1999 by Daimler AG, the premiere German automotive manufacturer, and Compagnie Financière Richemont SA, the Swiss luxury goods holding company, as founding patrons.

Hanno Burtscher: Da Vinci Designer, Renaissance Man
Very few IWC fans, let alone others in the world of watches, have heard of Hanno Burtscher. Yet he has made extremely important contributions to the world of horology and IWC in particular.

F.A. Jones: The Man and the Mystery
Florentine Ariosto Jones, the American who founded International Watch Company in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, was an adventurous spirit with great foresight, but unfortunately saw his dreams crumble. Yet today the IWC that he first envisioned not only has survived but also has prevailed.

Le Petit Prince - Dreams and watches
Starting in 2005, IWC entered into a partnership with the Saint-Exupéry-d’Agay Estate whereby the heirs of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and IWC would collaborate in various ways. IWC would support the Fondation’s goals of ensuring that the famous Frenchman’s humanist ideas would remain alive.

Ten Tips for Watch Care
Your watch has enemies. They include dirt, dust, moisture, and shocks, to say nothing about temperature extremes and UV radiation. For more than a century, watchmakers like IWC have developed and utilized engineering solutions to fight these enemies. Today, technology has produced watches that are more sealed and shockproof than ever.

1950 - The Automatic Movement comes from Schaffhausen
In the history of IWC, 1950 marks the start of an era. For a patent registered that year has continued to play an important role in the way IWC sees itself to this day. Good enough reason to remember the date. There are important gaps in world politics just as there are in the company's history

Time in your Pocket
The beauty of mechanical watches is that they pay tribute to the past while representing the future. IWC, like all watch companies founded in the 19th century, produced pocket watches for decades.

25 Years The unveiling of a masterpiece of complication
With this watch, IWC unequivocally claimed its place at the pinnacle of haute horlogerie. But not only that: the model was also a clear and eye-catching statement in favour of the mechanical watch and the company's belief in the future of classical watchmaking.
Forum Interviews

Interview with Bob Bunnik
Bob Bunnik is a very good friend of many IWC collectors throughout the world. He has attended numerous collectors’ meetings in Schaffhausen and at SIHH in Geneva. In this interview, Bob shares about himself and interests.

Interview with Argiris Develegas
Argiris is a contributor to the IWC Collectors’ Forum and a friend of many IWC collectors throughout the world. In this interview he tells about himself and his interests.

Interview with IWC Schaffhausen CEO Christoph Grainger-Herr
In this exclusive interview, the new CEO of IWC Schaffhausen perceptively discusses his views about, and goals for, IWC.

INTERVIEW WITH RALPH EDMONDSON
Ralph Edmondson embodies British class and style. In this interview we learn more about Ralph, a true friend of many IWC watch collectors, and his many interests.

Interview with Erwin Chu
Erwin is an enthusiastic IWC Collector from Hong Kong SAR, China. Since his first IWC watch in 2006, he has become an active participant on the IWC Collectors’ Forum and the Hong Kong watch scene.

Interview With Adrian Van Der Meijden
Adrian Van Der Meijden is a “collectors’ collector”, with a special emphasis and expertise on vintage IWCs and their history. The author of numerous historical and technical articles about IWC, in this interview we learn how Adrian’s interest in watches developed.

INTERVIEW WITH JIM PEARSON
Jim Pearson and his wife Dorothy have traveled extensively, visiting many other IWC forum participants. In this interview, we learn more about Jim and his interests in IWC watches, archeology, Texas Barb-B-Que and especially meeting collectors.

Interview with Antonio Gomes
Antonio (Tony) Gomes is an active participant on the IWC Collectors’ Forum. He is a vintage watch collector with impeccable standards, and a colorful addition to the collector community. You can learn a little more about him and his outstanding collection here.

Interview with Jarrod Gill
Jarrod Gill is an enthusiastic collector of contemporary IWC watches and a frequent contributor to forum discussions. In this interview he tells about his travels, how his interest in IWC was born, how his collection has grown and where it might be heading.

INTERVIEW WITH TERRY RUSSELL
Terry Russell has been a participant on the IWC Forum since it’s inception. He’s passionate about watches, and especially loves the history underlying them. But Terry especially has a charming sense of humor, which reflects itself in the many intriguing articles that he’s contributed to the forum over the years.

INTERVIEW WITH KELVIN LEUNG
My family loves watches. I think it runs in my family. My grandparents and my Dad used to take my brother and me watch-browsing or watch shopping every Sunday. They had a few shops that they knew well, and would spend hours just looking at and talking about watches

Interview with Thang Vo-Ta
Thang is not only a collector of contemporary IWC watches, but also represents the quintessentially modern entrepreneur. Having lived throughout the world, he considers other collectors as “fairly driven and passionate” persons. Thang is the perfect example of that!

INTERVIEW WITH BILL BARKER
In 10 years, Bill Barker has grown to love both IWC watches and also his many get-togethers with fellow collectors. In this interview, we learn about Bill and his special passions.