SPICETROVE WATCHES

ICONIC HOROLOGIST KURT KLAUS CHARTS THE HISTORY OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE timekeeper’sCHRONOGRAPHS MANUFACTURED BY IWC OVER THE PAST TWOtales DECADES

Everything ingenious is simple. That is the guiding principle I have followed all through my time as master watch- maker and head of the research & development department at IWC Schaffhausen. It works every time. Let me take you back to the early Eighties, when I was looking for a mechanical solution for an absolutely reliable perpetual calendar that would also be easy to operate. I had already been involved in the design of many calendars for

/www.indiatodayimages.com /www.indiatodayimages.com complicated pocket watches for the Schaffhausen manufactory; but this calendar was supposed to be different. After many years of experimenting, I finally invented a mechanism that competently controlled the different lengths of the months as well as the leap years that are part of the Gregorian calendar. We named it after the Italian inventor, artist and genius Da Vinci. The highly sophisticated mechanism of the new perpetual calendar was mechanically programmed and required no adjust- ment other than the replacement of the century slide supplied with the watch. Only the years 2100, 2200 and 2300 needed a minor correction to be made because these are not leap years according to the Gregorian calendar. The mechanical ver- satility of the new invention was just as impressive as the simplicity of its operation. It automatically set the date, the day of the week, the month, the year, the decade and the century; plus, it showed the current moon phase. ILLUSTRATION BY:ILLUSTRATION SINGH SAURABH SPICETROVE WATCHES

Nevertheless, it was an everyday watch cum chronograph that per- mitted aggregate time recording up to 12 hours. It was this movement, with its perpetual calendar and moon phase display, that was eventual- ly to ensure this complicated timepiece of a significant breakthrough in a time not particularly predisposed to mechanical watches. This was a watch that was even able to put modern chip technology in the shadows. Its calendar exhibits had an unbelievable reduction ratio of 6315840000 to 1 on the longest gear train between the escape wheel and the one move- ment of the century slide with the first two digits of the year, every 100 years. Never before had anything of this kind been seen in a wristwatch. This was 1985 and the patented calendar had just found a place in the countless com- plicated wristwatches from IWC. Spring 1990 marked the start of another new age in the recording of time. IWC unveiled a wristwatch that was one of the most complicated ever seen, and yet at the same time the easiest to use: the Grande THE BEAUTY OF THE PILOT’S WATCH UTC (1998) IS THAT WORLD Complication. A name used in watchmaking since time immemorial to TIME, OR ANY OTHER TIME OF THE WEARER’S CHOICE, RUNS describe only the most complex of timepieces; because “ticking away” PARALLEL TO THE LOCAL TIME IN A WINDOW ON THE DIAL at the same even pace inside this watch was a mechanism that took around 50,000 hours of development by some of the best-qualified watchmakers in the industry. The vital statistics: 659 mechanical parts (71 suspended on a platinum membrane to enable it to amplify the vibra- of them jewels) and 21 functions and displays, including a perpetual cal- tions produced by the gongs via the sound transmission pin. Since then, endar, together with a perpetual moon phase display. Working inside the the Grande Complication from IWC has only been produced in an case were a chronograph and a highly complex minute repeater activat- annual maximum of just 50 pieces. ed through an all-or-nothing piece slide. This wonderful invention In 1992, the manufactory notched up another milestone on the chimed out the time in crystal-clear tones, activated by the slide on the long path of hand-crafted watchmaking expertise with a Double left-hand side of the case. Two tiny, precision-made hammers were re- Chronograph. Now, the rattrapante mechanism is an old watch compli- leased and chimed the time in hours, quarters and minutes on two gongs. cation of the 19th century. The French word rattrapante describes the fly- The striking mechanism was a technical tour de force. Initially, the chimes back hand found in split-seconds chronographs. These watches have two were inaudible outside the solid platinum case so the glass was freely chronograph hands, one of which can be stopped separately to record two or more separate readings within a given minute. The split-seconds mechanism from IWC could only have been made by specialists ob- sessed with complications for complication’s sake. Indeed, some of the mechanical features have been so radically altered by the company that the patent office recognised them as genuine improvements. And IWC announced the split-seconds chronograph with a stainless steel case in the same tradition as its Pilot’s Watches. In 1993, on the 125th anniversary of the company, the legendary Grande Complication was surpassed. The monument of time measure- ment was called Il Destriero Scafusia and was the most complicated se- ries-produced wristwatch in the world at the time. The first “flying” minute tourbillon in a titanium cage, a split-seconds chronograph and an opulent, hand-decorated movement clearly visible under a sapphire glass back were the additional features of this splendid work of watchmaking. It was pure art. The tourbillon has long been considered the ultimate achievement in mechanical watchmaking. Constructing the mechanism represented an enormous challenge. The filigree construction consisted of about 90 parts, all of which weighed a mere 0.296 grams. Produced in a limited edition of 125 numbered units, the collection quickly sold out. A comparatively small but useful and trendsetting innovation THE PILOTS WATCH DOUBLE CHRONOGRAPH (LEFT); emerged when I developed the first UTC Pilot’s Watch in 1998. UTC THE IL DESTRIERO SCAFUSIA (1993) WAS CREATED stands for Universal Time Coordinated, the time standard by which all TO MARK THE 125TH ANNIVERSARY OF IWC (RIGHT) pilots flying internationally take their bearings. Starting with universal time, a constant, the time and date can be turned back or advanced SPICETROVE WATCHES

using the watch crown. World time, or any other time of the wearer’s maximum precision. Besides this, the IWC 5000-caliber family with its choice, runs parallel to the local time in a window on the dial. For seven-day power reserve represented a giant leap forward in the history example, this means travellers in distant countries only need to glance of automatic movements: 1,960 complete revolutions of the rotor wind at the watch to know whether it is night or day back home. the movement for a full seven days. It took four years for this innovation The GST Deep One was a demonstration of IWC’s creativity when from Schaffhausen to do justice to the demands of its creators. it came to divers’ watches in 1999. The Deep One was the first and only In 2003, IWC introduced a new highlight: the Portuguese Perpetual diver’s watch with a mechanical depth gauge, a flyback hand for the Calendar. This watch combined the proprietary caliber 5011 with a maximum depth and an inner bezel for the dive time. It was a cleverly perpetual calendar, which operated according to the same principle as devised professional combination instrument and became quite a rarity. the Da Vinci. The caliber 5011, an updated version of the caliber 5000, However, IWC technology reached unparalleled heights of sophis- had a central seconds hand and a date display. The date ring played an tication when it created a watch to mark the start of the new millenni- important role in this stage of evolution. Although concealed beneath the um: the Portuguese Automatic 2000. The watch wrote a new chapter of dial, it gave the essential impetus every evening for the perpetual calen- history. The extra large 5000-caliber movement featured some of the best dar to move forward by one day. ideas ever to appear in an automatic watch, among them the legendary A moon phase display naturally also has its place in an IWC with a Pellaton winding system and the balance with its Breguet spiral for perpetual calendar. The Portuguese Perpetual Calendar stands out here

THE GST DEEP ONE WAS THE FIRST AND ONLY DIVER’S WATCH WITH A MECHANICAL DEPTH GUAGE, A FLYBACK HAND FOR MAXIMUM DEPTH AND AN INNER BEZEL

74 SPICETROVE WATCHES

THE PORTUGUESE PERPETUAL CALENDAR DOUBLE MOONPHASE IS THE WORLD’S FIRST WATCH THAT SHOWS THE POSITION OF THE MOON IN BOTH THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

as the world’s first watch that shows the position of the moon in both the northern and southern hemispheres. However, this is not the only spe- cial feature of this display. By using a larger moon disc, which has more teeth than seen in other watches, the designers have achieved a sig- nificant improvement in accuracy. The deviation of the moon display in the Portuguese Perpetual Calendar is just one day in 577 years. No mechanical wristwatch can do better at this point in time. IWC has invested a considerable amount of time to produce a new mechanical chronograph movement. The result of all this effort, research and testing over the years was the movement, which was abbreviated to Cal. 89360. This is the “motor” which drives the Da Vinci Chronograph and set new standards in the field of horological engineering in 2007. It translated the chronograph logically for the first time into a “watch within a watch”. To do this, it converted its measured times into, to our eyes, a completely familiar, analogue time display via hour hands and minute hands, and makes these measured times decod- able at a glance. This year, we launched the Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month, which continues in the proud tradition of the chronographs with perpetual calendar. For the first time ever, an IWC timepiece with a perpetual calen-

dar offers a large format date display, and also turns the correct chang- ing of the month into a large scale digital event on the dial. The watch- maker’s ingenuity was required yet again to showcase the two main calendar indications in such a prominent fashion. The new IWC-man- ufactured 89800-caliber consists of 474 parts and builds up a power reserve of 68 hours. Designed for perpetuity, and now here in the digital age, the Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month needs to be advanced by one day only once every 100 years. All the other switching processes are reliably programmed and op- erate automatically. The Schaffhausen manufactory is known worldwide for solving difficult mechanical problems. We have to ensure that we continue this legacy for creating timeless timepieces.

INDIA TODAY SPICE TROVE JANUARY 2010