IWC Watches

IWC watch price

IWC has a massive collection on offer. These watches are crafted out of different materials, come with different types of straps or bracelets and feature different sets of complications. Depending on what combination you pick, the prices can vary. Nonetheless, we have listed the prices of the most popular IWC models above.

International Watch Company – A bumpy ride of its history

Internation Watch Company or more commonly known as IWC was founded in 1868. Florentine Ariosto Jones, an American engineer and watchmaker came up with the brand with the aim to bring modern engineering technology from the United States to the Swiss watch industry. With that in mind, he traveled to Switzerland where he met an industrialist Johann Heinrich Moser, who owned a watch factory and hydropower plant in Schaffhausen am Rhein.

Jones started the International Watch Company by renting out a few rooms in Moser’s factory in 1868. Soon after that, he built his own factory in order to setup his production line. However, IWC was not able to generate enough profits as the demand was low and the US import duties were too high. Eventually, the company filed bankruptcy and the IWC factory was handed over to the commercial bank – Schaffhausener Handelsbank.

The bank did try to give the company a new life by converting IWC into a stock company in 1874. But the company again went bankrupt in 1880 and it was purchased by Johannes Rauschenbach. He managed to keep the company going in a much smoother pace and from that point on the business remained in the same family for a few generations.

Famed Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Gustav Jung was a shareholder in IWC at a time. His brother-in-law, Ernst Jakob Homberger, purchased his shares in 1929. Following the death of Johannes Rauschenbach, Homberger took over the company. His reins were passed on to his son, Hans Ernst Homberger in 1955. In 1978, Hans Ernst Homberger ended up selling the business to a German company due to the quartz crisis and the weak dollar.

Where IWC really started to take off

The International Watch Company was now under the control of VDO Adolf Schindling AG. During the same time, VDO had also incorporated another Swiss watch manufacturer, Jaeger-LeCoultre. In 1991, the two watch companies went to Mannesmann corporation along with VDO due to the merger of the two companies. In 2000, Vodafone bought the Mannesmann group. The telecommunications firm was not ready to enter the watch industry, which is why they sold IWC to the Richemont group. To date, IWC is a part of the Richemont group to this day. For reference, the Richemont group is also home to some other luxury watch brands including Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre, A. Lange & Söhne and more.

Since IWC became a part of the Richemont group, it continuously expanded its six watch families with precision engineering and exclusive design.

A flattering collection of IWC watches

International Watch Company has launched numerous watches since its inception. While there were a few watches that layed the foundation for what it is, some of them did go away as time passed. Some of the most notable collections in the IWC catalog include the Pilot’s Watches, Portugieser and the Ingenieur.

Here’s a list of the most popular IWC watch collections:

• Pilot’s watches
• Portugieser
• Portofino

Pilot’s watches

International Watch Company has been a pioneer in making high-grade pilot or aviation watches. In 1948, IWC launched the Mark XI, which proved to be a legendary pilots watch. The watch was created for the Royal Air Force and interestingly, the watch was in service for more than three decades. In order to make the timepiece so robust, the inner case was comprised of soft iron. It was developed to keep the 89 calibre safe from damage caused by magnetic fields.

Continuing the Mark lineup, IWC even launched Mark 12 and it followed through to the current Mark 17. In 1988, IWC gave birth to the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph, which came to be a huge success. Two years later, IWC developed numerous complications, including the UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) and the split-seconds mechanism.

It was only in 2003 when IWC announced the launch of the Pilot’s Watch, which was named after the Supermarine Spitfire – a British fighter aircraft that was utilized during the Second World War. Four years later, the company introduced the first Top Gun watch. In 2012, the company expanded the Top Gun collection and it now offers elegant luxury watches for everyone. Among the IWC devotees, the most popular watch is the Big Pilot’s watch.

Another popular IWC Pilot’s watch is the Blue Angles edition. Popularly known as the IWC Blue Angels watch, the timepiece features a blue dial and a blue strap to go with it. The reference IW389008 even features a chronograph.

Portugieser

The Portugieser is one of the oldest watches from the house of IWC Schaffhausen. Not only that but it is also the most prestigious timepiece. In 1930, two Portuguese merchants commissioned wristwatches at IWC with the accuracy of marine chronometers. In order to provide them with their needs, the International Watch Co. produced a wristwatch that used a pocket watch calibre and was built in steel casings.

This gave birth to the Portugieser collection. The collection has steadily grown over the years and has proven to be one of the most popular collections in the luxury watches industry. Today, the watches in the Portugieser collection feature a range of complications. These complications include chronographs, perpetual calendars, minute repeaters, and tourbillions.

Portofino

Some of the most elegant dress watches in the IWC catalog can be seen in the Portofino collection. This exquisite timepiece collection consists of three-hand watches and chronographs. There are even watches with moon phase indicators, power-reserve displays, and even tourbillons. These watches are either powered by the Automatic Sellita movements or manual in-house movements.

Under this collection, IWC has a lot of watches ranging from 37 to 45 mm in diameter. These watches come in stainless steel or gold. There are even models that come with diamonds studded on them.