On the occasion of its 150th birthday, IWC Schaffhausen will reinforce its legacy in engineering fine timepieces and watch movements with a retrospective exhibition that will run from 1st to 13th May 2018 at Level 1 Atrium of ION Orchard, Singapore’s premier luxury shopping mall. Designed in the industrial style of IWC manufacture in its early days, the exhibition will showcase the company’s defining historical creations alongside artistic and technical highlights from its new Jubilee collection.
In 1868, with a vision to engineer the best pocket watch movements of his time, an ambitious, young Boston watchmaker named Florentine Ariosto Jones (F.A. Jones) sailed across the Atlantic from America to Switzerland to set up the International Watch Company on the bank of the magnificent Rhine Falls in Schaffhausen.
By combining the unrivalled expertise of home-based Swiss craftsmen with state-of-the-art machine technology from America, the 27-year-old quickly established a strong industrialised manufacturing infrastructure that was geared, impressively, for the production of more than 10,000 first-class mechanical movements per year.
As IWC Schaffhausen turns 150 this year, the company invites its clients, watch enthusiasts and members of the public to trace the adventurous footsteps of F.A Jones and immerse themselves in his untiring quest for engineering excellence at the IWC 150th Anniversary Exhibition, which will run from 1st May 2018 to 13th May 2018 in Singapore at the first-level atrium of multi-award-winning, upscale shopping mall ION Orchard.
Taking centrestage at the retrospective exhibition, which is designed in the industrial style of IWC’s factory in its early days, are 10 of the most iconic watches the luxury brand has ever designed and manufactured.
Travelling from IWC’s storied archives in Schaffhausen, those include the iconic Special Watch for Pilots Ref. 436 (1936); the Yacht Club Automatic Ref. 811 (1967), which was one of IWC’s first watches to be adorned with a blue dial; and the Lepine Pallweber III pocket watch (1886) that featured breakthrough jumping numerals.
Florentine Ariosto Jones (F.A. Jones)
Various patterns of IWC Jones movements. At first, IWC founder F.A. Jones sold his watches exclusively in the USA. The high quality movements have been made since 1868 in Schaffhausen.
A drawing of IWC’s headquarters from the 1870s
A plan of IWC’s main building from 1874
Movement components for production of the Jones calibre in the mid 1870s. The original work box from movement assembly demonstrates the processes involved in manufacturing and assembling the individual movement components.
On display are also the showstoppers from IWC’s Jubilee collection, which was unveiled at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in Geneva in January to celebrate its 150th birthday. Those include the highly talked about Tribute to Pallweber pocket- and wristwatches; the diamond encrusted Da Vinci Automatic Moon Phase 36 Edition “150 Years”; and the Portugieser Constant-Force Tourbillon Edition “150 Years”.
“For 150 years, IWC has remained true to the legacy of its founder F.A. Jones and made many lasting impressions from both an artistic and a technical perspective in the world of fine watchmaking,” says Managing Director for IWC South East Asia Mr. Stanislas Rambaud. “Looking back, for us, is just as important as looking forward. The juxtaposition of IWC’s most iconic historical creations against the new Jubilee collection makes for a compelling story and, surely, there’s no better way to showcase the company’s heritage than that,” he adds.
Exhibition details
Dates: 1st to 13th May 2018
Time: 10am to 10pm
Venue: ION Orchard, 2 Orchard Turn, Singapore 238801
