Fake watches: The maxim “what money can’t buy, money can buy” is even more relevant these days. Today, you can buy almost anything as long as you have the money. “Almost” because health does not appear in the price list of unlimited possibilities. But let’s get back to the point, which is: we have history, we have money and they call us IWC Schaffhausen. And we have what? A book, of course, to tell the world about our first watch from 1868 and the remaining 142 years of history.
But who will write it? Any engineer? No, it will become a reading for the young watchmaker. Some writer – maybe! And what about a writer, the son of a distinguished engineer. Bingo!
It was to Paulo Coelho that the Swiss brand IWC entrusted the task of writing 550 pages, titled on a thick cover with the name “IWC Schaffhausen”. Engineering Time since 1868″.
If you familiarize yourself with the biography of the Brazilian writer, you will understand that his father Pedro Coelho is actually a distinguished engineer. But it is his parents who try to put an embargo on the love of poetry and writing when little Paulo makes his first attempts on the white sheet of paper.
Because of his rebellious behavior, he was even sent three times to a clinic for the mentally ill, where Coelho Jr. got to know electroshock therapy up close. These facts about the most successful Brazilian author are public knowledge. But if we make a private conclusion, maybe Paulo Coelho hated engineering because of his father. Otherwise, he would now have become a modern alchemist, inheritor of his father’s gift.
But let’s get back to the point. We have money, we have a story, we want a book. Three years, a hefty fee (almost certainly), famous names and here is “Engineering Time since 1868” already a fact. It examines the 142-year history of the watch company from Schaffhausen. The work took Paulo Coelho about 36 months, during which he described the origins of the individual product families, and the famous cartoonist Enki Bilal illustrated the stories with impressive images.
To the rescue, however, comes Manfred Fritz, whose name on the cover, notice, precedes Coelho’s. The Fritz in question was born in Germany in 1945 and is the author of many publications on perfect replica watches and the watchmaking industry in general. He wrote “The Grande Complication from IWC”, published in 1991. However, he now appears as the editor-in-chief of Coelho.
Whatever we say about the book of the Swiss company IWC Schaffhausen, it is a work of art. “Engineering Time since 1868” is a fascinating story that will appeal not only to connoisseurs, but also to all fans of luxury brands.
With its 550 illustrations and a weight of 4.4 kilograms, the book looks like an expensive encyclopedia, but it is also much more. It tells the story of a world that has existed since 1868, the year the International Watch Company was founded in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
As a title, “Engineering Time since 1868” is an original, meticulously researched cultural history of time measurement, stamped “Made in Schaffhausen”.
The story begins when the talented and daring Boston watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones stepped onto the banks of the Rhine 142 years ago. It was here, on the banks of the river, that the 27-year-old American engineer founded the International Watch Company with the intention of combining Swiss craftsmanship with modern American technology to produce movements and parts for the US market.
Wages in Switzerland were relatively low at the time, and although it was ready with a supply of skilled labor, many of the Swiss Luxury Fake Watches were made at home. Jones faces opposition to his plans in the French-speaking region because people fear for their jobs and the American wants to open a factory to bring them together.
In 1850, the small, colorful town of Schaffhausen was in danger of falling behind the industrial age. At this time, Johann Heinrich Moser, watchmaker and industrialist, was doing a huge service to these lands. A white coal pioneer, he built the city’s first hydroelectric plant and laid the foundations for future industrialization. Moser probably took an interest in Jones’s ambitions because the two of them made the town flourish.
In 1869, Florentine Jones rented premises in an industrial building, where the first IWC factory began operating. Very soon he took several rooms in the Oberhaus, one of the oldest buildings in Schaffhausen. In 1874 there were plans for a new factory, and the site was bought by the Moser Hydroelectric Company. It is located right next to the banks of the Rhine. A year later, the city’s chief architect completed the project, and in the spring of 1875, 196 people were already working in the 45-meter-long factory.
In 1880, Johann Rauschenbach-Vogel, a machine manufacturer from Schaffhausen, took over the leadership of IWC. Four generations of the Rauschenbach family run IWC under different names.
Another important role on the path to success was played by Urs Haengi, who joined the company in 1883 and stayed with it for 52 years. He keeps foreign interests at bay from acquiring IWC, in the interests of the noble Rauschenbach family.
In 1955, after the death of his father, Hans Homberger took over the management – this is the last, third successor of Johann Rauschenbach. He builds a new wing of the factory and creates a pension fund for the employees. In addition, it does not stop buying new and new machines to meet new production technologies. He died in 1986 at the age of 77.
Immediately before and after the First World War, Homberger Sr. (Hans’ father) established housing buildings for his workers, as well as a fund for orphans and widows. On April 1, 1944, as a result of a fatal mistake, Schaffhausen was bombed by the American Air Force. One of the bombs falls on top of the IWC factory, shatters the roof and gets stuck between two beams. However, the explosive failed to detonate. However, the neighboring building was not so lucky and was completely destroyed,
causing a fire in the watch factory as well, which was quickly extinguished.
After World War II, the company was forced to change its focus. Eastern Europe falls under the Iron Curtain, fake watches and the economy in Germany is in complete disarray. As a result, the old contacts and connections with other countries of the Old Continent,
North and South America, Australia, as well as the Far East were restored.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Swiss fake watches underwent major technological changes. After the introduction of miniature electric batteries in the late 1940s,
this time the industry is trying to develop a greater hybrid balance between precision, mechanics and electronics.
IWC fake managed to avoid investing heavily in expensive and ultimately unsuccessful technologies such as the electronically controlled balance. The company is expanding its collection of women’s fake watches with mechanical movements. In 1973, IWC was the most successful manufacturer in the industry since the post-war period. Later, the price of gold tripled and the price of the US dollar against the Swiss currency fell by up to 40%. As a result, watch exports increased by nearly 250%.
At the same time, Japan is flooding the market with cheap quartz models. In order to survive, IWC introduced a number of changes by launching a series of high quality pocket fake watches. He then collaborated with Ferdinand Porsche on design and pioneered the creation of the first titanium bracelet in 1978. To this day, IWC has a special Porsche Design series.
In 1991, IWC director Günter Blumlein founded the LMH Group with headquarters in Schaffhausen. The group owns 100% of the shares of the IWC watch brand, 60% of Jaeger-LeCoultre
and 90% of the Saxony-based watch brand A. Lange & Sohne. All employees are about 1440 people.
In July 2000, LMH was bought by Richemont for 2.8 billion Swiss francs. Despite the takeover by Richemont, IWC continues to be run by the same LMH staff.
