On 14 July 2017, Compagnie Financière Richemont SA announced the immediate resignation of their Head of Watchmaking, Marketing and Digital, Georges Kern. According to a Reuters report, he was four months into his new role. Watch industry observers will be familiar with this industry veteran who was formerly the chief executive officer of IWC Schaffhausen. The 52-year-old Kern has a … More
Today, Friday 31 July 2015, is the “once in a blue moon” day for it is the second full moon of this calendar month. A blue moon will take place tonight. Defined as the second full moon in a month, it is a rare event. The last blue moon took place on 31 August 2012 or almost three years ago. … More
On the dial side, IWC’s 43.5mm Portofino Hand-Wound Pure Classic Ref. IW511101 looks like a simple two-hand watch. However, its looks are deceiving; flip the watch over and there will be collectors who will recognise this movement: the Manufacture Calibre 59060 manual-winding movement with eight days or 192 hours of power reserve once fully wound. The first question collectors might … More
The Aquatimer collection is IWC’s main highlight for 2014 and the new models were launched at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie held in January in Geneva, Switzerland. The first IWC Aquatimer was introduced in 1967 and the name of the collection is derived by combining the words aqua for water and timer for timing. Interestingly, sand is not … More
As the Christmas tree was being taken down, a souvenir from IWC was spotted – a biplane decoration. This metallic biplane decoration was actually taken from an IWC Christmas card received and it marked part of the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of The Little Prince (1943 to 2013), the best-selling novel written and illustrated by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900 … More
Famed naturalist Charles Darwin (1809 to 1882) is well-known for his theory of natural selection and his book The Origin of Species. However, this was the shortened 1872 title which was the sixth edition; the title of the original version of 1859 by British publisher John Murray was: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the … More
It was merely a matter of time before Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, both from the Mercedes AMG Petronas team, were to become ambassadors for IWC. Well, this is simply because one year earlier, on 8 May 2012, the announcement of the partnership agreement between IWC and the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team was made. A … More