IWC Schaffhausen

IWC was founded in 1868 in Schaffhausen by Florentine Ariosto Jones, an American watchmaker who intended to combine Swiss craftsmanship with modern production methods for the US market. Financial difficulties led to the company passing in 1880 to Johann Rauschenbach-Vogel, whose family ran it for four generations. The company has remained in Schaffhausen, on the Rhine, far from the watchmaking centres of western Switzerland.

Several of its lines date back decades: the Portugieser, first made in 1939 around a pocket-watch calibre; the Pilot's Watches, including the Big Pilot of 1940 and the Mark 11 supplied to the Royal Air Force from 1948; the anti-magnetic Ingenieur of 1955, redesigned by Gérald Genta in 1976; and the Aquatimer dive watch of 1967. In 1985 Kurt Klaus's perpetual calendar, adjustable entirely through the crown, appeared in the Da Vinci. IWC has belonged to Richemont since 2000; the Portofino completes the current catalogue.