IWC's pilot watches, ready for takeoff
From the very first Special Pilot's Watch in 1936 right up to today, IWC has built a rich collection of pilot's watches. The flight plan couldn't have been clearer: legible, robust and precise!
Culture
Articles on the subject: History & Masterpieces
Regulating organs, from past to present – Part five
Of all the inventions that have helped improve the precision of mechanical watches, none is more important, or less well-documented, than the development of the regulating organ. To help bridge that gap, we retrace the history of escapements from the earliest devices to the very latest silicon regulators. Part five: from the detached escapement of the nineteenth century to the pin-pallet escapement of the 1930s.
Cape Cod, the geometry of time by Hermès
In 1991, Hermès took the wraps off a form watch whose signature combination of a square, a rectangle and the iconic Chaîne d’Ancre motif has become a true classic.
The Patek Philippe Calatrava says it all, with less
Form follows function. This Bauhaus principle was also that of Patek Philippe when it imagined the Calatrava in 1932. Clarity, elegance and the same remarkable simplicity of form have defined each variation ever since.
Beaumarchais, watchmaker of a thousand faces
A man of infinite talents and a figure of the Enlightenment, Beaumarchais lived a dozen lives in one. A fearless entrepreneur and financier, an intrepid adventurer and secret agent for the king, a formidable pamphleteer and remarkable dramatist, a libertine and a visionary, he was also... a watchmaker and the inventor of the double virgule escapement.
Van Cleef & Arpels' Cadenas, a watch that enlaces time
A symbol of attachment and shared sentiments, the Cadenas ignores the boundaries of design. Impervious to trends, its singular aesthetic, as much jewellery as watch, is as strikingly modern today as when it first appeared in 1935.
Regulating organs, from past to present – Part four
Of all the inventions that have helped improve the precision of mechanical watches, none is more important, or less well-documented, than the development of the regulating organ. To help bridge that gap, we retrace the history of escapements from the earliest devices to the very latest silicon regulators. Part four: from the "exotic" escapements of the 18th century to the Swiss lever escapement post-1753.
Silicon's strategic role
Having gradually earned the respect of movement constructors, though still held in disregard by purists, silicon components are an integral part of watchmaking today, to the point of representing a competitive advantage.
