IWC

IWC is a producer of Swiss luxury watches, directed by CEO Christoph Grainger-Herr, and has been wholly owned by luxury conglomerate Richemont SA since 2000. IWC operates alongside brands such as Jaeger-LeCoultre, Cartier, Panerai, and Montblanc. The full name of the company is IWC Schaffhausen, after the little town near Zürich where the manufacture was founded in 1868 by F.A. Jones.

Since 1868, IWC has made a name for itself as the International Watch Co. Schaffhausen, a producer of inventive and reliable timekeepers designed for a great variety of purposes, including IWC Caliber 89, a movement that powered IWC watches from the 1940s until the early 1990s, as well as the Kurt Klaus perpetual calendar that debuted in 1985 in the Da Vinci watch collection.

IWC watches range from accessible entry-level luxury watches, such as the three-hand Portofino Automatic at just under $5,000, to five-figure luxury timekeepers in steel, gold, and more novel materials such as IWC Ceratanium, carbon fiber, scratchproof ceramic, and 18k Armor gold. Big and bold pilot’s watches with high-contrast dials are an IWC icon, including the IWC Big Pilot’s Watch 43, Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41, and Pilot’s Watch Mark XVIII. Dressy watches from the brand include the Portofino Chronograph and the Portugieser collections.

For watch enthusiasts, the most popular IWC products tend to fall within the larger Big Pilot’s Watch and Portofino lines, as well as the limited editions with novel watch case materials.