The International Watch Company (IWC) is a combination of an American dream and Swiss technology to produce top quality watches. In 1869, Florentine Ariosto Jones, an American from Boston, utilized the world renowned Swiss watch making craftsmen and rented his first factory in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. His objective was to draw from all the excellence of the American watch system of mechanism with the intense skillful watch handiwork of the Swiss. In 1875 IWC completed its own building on the Banks of the Rhine River. Overlooking the magnificent river, the IWC factory remains the only watch factory in East Switzerland to this day.
IWC has stayed true to its original designs of classic simplicity with contemporary nature being a statement of the brand. Ferdinand Porsche worked for the company as an external designer for a while, and the first use of Titanium in Watch manufacture came through IWC.
IWC developed the Aquatimer watch, which was the first diver's watch to be developed in 1967. A complete line of inventive diver's watches are available in the Aquatimer series such as the Aquatimer Split Minute Chronograph and the Aquatimer Automatic 2000. The latter is for the most extreme diving professional, as it is made with titanium casing and allows pressure resistance down to 2000 meters below sea level.
Perhaps the most popular and well known series from IWC is the Portuguese watches. Included in this line are the Portuguese Regulator, the Portuguese Perpetual Calendar, the Portuguese Perpetual Calender II, the Portuguese Automatic, the Portuguese Automatic Chronograph, the Portuguese Minute Repeater, the F.A Jones Limited Edition, and the prized Portuguese Tourbillon Mystère, with its impressive seven-day power reserve.
The Pilot watches are also extremely popular; lead off by the Big Pilot's Watch with an oversized case and seven-day power reserve, followed by the Spitfire Mark XVI, the Spitfire Automatic Chronograph, the Spitfire UTC, the Classic Mark XVI, the Classic Automatic Chronograph, and the Classic Double (sometimes referred to as Dopple) Chronograph.
IWC watches are for the real watch enthusiast, offering him must-have watches with limited editions and highly sought after designs, including the Vintage Collection, Da Vinci watches, and the New Ingenieur Collection, which clearly distinguish IWC from the competition.
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