The Jubilee Line
From the moment of its creation, borne out of the bold visionary ambition of the American F. A. Jones to unite the disparate arts of watchmaking under one roof in a factory powered by the mighty Rhine Falls, the single defining quality of the International Watch Company has been the spirit of innovation. And, as you hold this copy of Revolution in your hands, you will recognise that the cover unconventionally features two individuals – and that is because they are both extraordinary symbols of the free-thinking that has always defined IWC.
The older gentleman is the brand’s – and arguably watchmaking’s – greatest repository of horological culture. If watchmaking had a hall of fame, Kurt Klaus would have been inducted long, long ago. While he was the technical director of IWC, he oversaw the development of the world’s first industrial split-seconds chronograph, the world’s first Bourdon-tube depth gauge inside a wristwatch, the world’s first modular minute repeater, the world’s first seven-day-power-reserve automatic movement with hyper-efficient Pellaton winding system, and he single-handedly created the world’s first synchronised perpetual calendar where all information – day, date, month, year, leap-year indication, moonphases and even digital reading for the year – was controlled by a single crown.
He oversaw the “Warhorse of Schaffhausen” (also known as Il Destriero Scafusia), a tourbillon, minute repeater and split-seconds chronograph that was, incredibly enough, built on a Valjoux 7750 base calibre. And if you find this counterintuitive, think again. Because IWC has always been about finding technical solutions to make any complication more reliable, more robust and function better than its haut de gamme counterpart, at a more accessible price.
The younger man is the CEO of IWC, Christoph Grainger-Herr, who unconventionally, began his career as an architect. But he prefers to think of this as a vocation that can encompass the implementation of visions that go far beyond the aesthetic. For Grainger-Herr, architecture is about social discourse, and so far his conversation with the watch-buying public, expressed in particular through the “150 Years” Jubilee Collection, has been a profoundly engaging one. He has already shown a deft
