IWC

IWC was founded in Boston in the 1860s by Ariosto Jones from Florence. In the late 1860s, Jones ended up as a watchmaker in Shaffhausen, Switzerland. Presumably Jones’ intention was to produce Swiss watches for the American market using American mass production techniques. Jones signed an agreement with Heindrich Moser to set up a factory with the aim of producing 10,000 watches a year for the American market. However, exporting the watches proved unprofitable due to tariffs and Jones returned to his home country, leaving the company to an American named Seeland, in whose hands the company went bankrupt. The Raushenberg Engineering Company bought IWC at this point and it was in the hands of this family firm that IWC’s most popular models, the Da Vinci, Portoguese, Portofino, Aquatimer and Ingenieur were produced. In 1978, IWC was taken over by Instek AG, then in the 1990s by the Mannesma Group, and finally in 2000 by the Richemont Group. IWC’s most popular models are still in production: the Aquatimer, Da Vinci, Ingenieur, Portofino, Portoguese and Pilot.