International Watch Company is short for IWC which is a Swiss watch manufacture located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland established by Florentine A. Jones who was an American engineer in Boston. His earliest mechanical watch factory was nearby Rhine and that was the very place he realized his dream: combining the craftsmanship of the Swiss with the modern engineering technology from the U.S. to manufacture movements and watch parts for the American market. Since its foundation in 1868, it has a history of over one hundred and forty years.
IWC manufacture in Schaffhausen
IWC’s motto is Probus Scafusia (L.) which means good, solid craftsmanship from Schaffhausen and was officially established as the Official Motto in 1903.
Brand Conception
Its brand conception is to provide top technology, creative thinking and brand personality as remarkable watch designers.
History
In 1868, an American engineer and watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones who had been a director of E. Howard & Co., in Boston, then America’s leading watch making company, founded the International Watch Company with the intention of producing high quality watch mechanism for the American market. Jones developed the Jones watch movement which is kind of high quality pocket watch with lengthening hands adjustor to do micro adjustment.
The Portuguese series of watches
In 1874 IWC become a joint-stock company.
Between 1874 and 1875, it established its 15th factory nearby Rhine which is now its headquarter site. And at the end of 1875 IWC has almost two hundred employees.
In 1876, IWC lost its most important market as the US government started to levy import tariff on watches. It was at that time Jones left the company and Schaffhauser
Handelsbank took over IWC and the American citizen Frederic Frank Seeland was assigned as the new board manager.
In 1897 IWC took part in the World Exposition in Sydney but failed. And that was an end to Seeland’s management strategy.
In 1880 the engine manufacture of Schaffhauser Johannes Rauschenbach- Vogel won the ownership.