WATCH WATCH Heritage Heritage of Leaders of the new horological Golden Age WATCHmaking TEXT SUZanne wONG titans PHOTOGRAPHY MUNSTER 172 173 H H REVOLUTION ©REVHLUTION ASIA ISSUE 32 REVOLUTION WATCH Heritage iWC stefan ihnen titans Associate director, R&D of WatCHmaking Stefan Ihnen joined IWC at the age of 29 in 2002, became head of movement development in 2006 and took on the position of associate director of research foreWord and development in 2010. In terms of movement construction, Ihnen’s most significant contribution to IWC has been the in-house caliber 89361, a fully Horological historians are always griping about have predicted was the enormous swell of global integrated column-wheel chronograph with friction how the golden era of mechanical watchmaking appreciation for mechanical horology, which coupling for the chronograph hours and minutes, came and went 200 years ago, and their immense turned a dusty, arguably anachronistic métier and lateral coupling for the chronograph seconds. disappointment about the unlikelihood that the into one of the most commercially salient luxury Until this day, the reliability and robustness of future will bring forth geniuses on the level of genres in the world. this dual-clutch chronograph movement have not Abraham-Louis Breguet, Antide Janvier or John Propelled by the commercial success of been surpassed at IWC, where functionality and Harrison. And while there is a certain veracity to luxury watches and the hunger of clients for engineering are prized above all else. The caliber this belief — after all, the basic vocabulary for all increasingly emotive and technically compelling 89361 and its descendants are a core feature of horological complications came into being well timepieces by the third millennium, the face of every IWC collection today. Ihnen also worked over two centuries ago — I would posit that there horology had changed. In less than a decade, closely with Jean-François Mojon on the patented have, in fact, been not one, but two Golden Ages we’ve witnessed a seismic shift, with a massive high-efficiency IWC quadruple-pawl winding system. Ihnen is now responsible for the strategic for high watchmaking. influx of everything from new materials like growth of IWC’s technical savoir-faire and plans The first was at the end of the 18th century, artificial diamond and silicon, to never-before- to make the Schaffhausen manufacture an industry coinciding with Harrison’s creation of the first seen complications such as double tourbillons reference for innovation through the research and functional marine chronometer, the H4, through linked via a differential, entering this once- predevelopment think tank he established last year. the beginning of the 19th century when Breguet’s purely-backward-looking arena. Collectively, tourbillon was patented. But to those students of the watch industry has never before witnessed history who are distraught at living in the wrong such a fruitful period of creative and scientific era, I would tell them to set aside their despair and advancement since the 18th century. open their eyes and pay attention. Because it just But it is also important to understand that this ihnen’s watchmaker’s screwdriver carousel, so happens that we are now in the second Golden collective advancement has been made possible though he rarely uses Age for horological invention, and one which, in by a group of brilliant, relentlessly driven, it, sits on his desk as a many ways, is the remarkable evolution of a craft fantastically creative technical minds that have reminder of his early that just 40 years ago, everyone thought would be each tried to push the craft of watchmaking to its years at the bench long dead and buried by now. next evolutionary step. In many ways, the story of modern A few months ago, REVHLUTION Asia’s watchmaking began not several centuries ago, editor-in-chief, Suzanne Wong, accepted the hey say everything has been invented. but several decades ago, when a handful of mission to travel to Switzerland to speak to the top They say that about many things, visionary entrepreneurs set about resurrecting an 10 (or rather top 11, because one of the positions but in particular they say it about industry that had been rapidly abandoned during was occupied by a partnership — the founders watchmaking. The only thing left for the Quartz Crisis. What those early proponents of La Fabrique du Temps, Enrico Barbasini and us to do now is improve, refine, fine- of mechanical watchmaking like Nicolas G. Michel Navas) technical minds in the watch tune — they say this as if it wouldn’t Hayek, Philippe Stern, Jean-Claude Biver, Rolf world to understand how each of them has helped contravene the entire nature of invention to be Schnyder, Franck Muller and Günter Blümlein to bring about this renewed Golden Age and what able to predict something, not just before it’s set about doing was to rediscover the many the advancement of horology means to them. happened, but before its very existence. complications that had been abandoned. As such, The result is what I feel to be one of the most In the movement-development the ’80s and ’90s represented a period where significant works of horological journalism that workshops of Switzerland, from the known complications were reintroduced into the the watch industry has ever witnessed. H Vallée de Joux to Neuchâtel to Meyrin contemporary vocabulary. But what no one could — Wei Koh, founder and group editorial director to Schaffhausen, individuals of exceptional talent, conviction and, yes, inventiveness are leading their The IWC automatic teams toward successive breakthroughs double-clutch in the fields of complication, materials column-wheel 174 175 chronograph H H innovation and technology. Some are even caliber 89361 REVOLUTION ©REVHLUTION ASIA ISSUE 32 REVOLUTION WATCH Heritage titans of Cartier forestier-Kasapi picked up this Carole re-engineering the very basics of watchmaking context of Cartier’s watchmaking prowess a but there are so many hands, and everything is WatCHmaking painting at the simonin bookshop forestier- as we know it. mere decade before. “Eight years ago,” recalls so small and difficult to read. At IWC we have in neuchâtel, depicting a tourbillon The truth of it is that there has never been Forestier-Kasapi, “there wasn’t anything at analog perpetual calendars, but we also have with bimetallic balance wheel, and it kasapi a better, more exciting time to be a part of the Cartier regarding movements. We started the digital date-month. If someone criticizes Director, fine watchmaking currently hangs above her desk. When watch world. Even if you could choose to be alive with a blank page, and now, we have not the readability of our calendar, we can say, asked about the nature of the balance wheel in the in the time of Abraham-Louis Breguet, what only the products, but also the organization ‘Here, take the digital one.’ It’s up to us to make painting, which does not feature split arms to allow for Carole Forestier-Kasapi was born into a family are the odds that you would be born into the and the team.” things easier for the customer. For me, this is the temperature self-compensation that the bimetallic of watchmakers — her father and her brothers appropriate demographic (western European, Neither is this flurry of innovation engineering at the essence. Yes, we do haute balance is designed to handle, she observed that the were all immersed in this way of life and she educated, rich, probably aristocratic) to restricted to the area of product — one of the horlogerie, but in a functional way.” painting was made by a watchmaking student in 1915 and says it was a natural progression for her to go actually witness his advancement of the most significant material innovations of the The gradual integration of an engineering that it should probably not be taken as being particularly down this path as well. Her career has been horological arts? And how much more watch industry, the use of silicon, is a key part approach to the watchmaking frame of mind technical or instructive characterized by extraordinary insight and frustrating to see his designs constrained by of any development at Ulysse Nardin, and its is something that preoccupies Vincent Beccia, innovation, and it is well-known that the idea for the Ulysse Nardin Freak originated from the limitations of 18th-century technology! We use there is largely based on a well-placed movement designer at Blancpain: “I used to Forestier-Kasapi when she worked for the continually speak about Breguet’s invention of gamble that paid off. Says industrial director be a watchmaker, which is why I understand company as head watchmaker for a period the tourbillon, but less often is it discussed how Pierre Gygax, “When we first met with Hubert a lot of the frustrations that watchmakers can of time. Since she started at Cartier in 1999, his workshop only delivered its first successful [Lorenz, CEO of Mimotec] and decided to sometimes have with the constructor. This is the luxury maison has grown exponentially in tourbillon after his death. Today, there are found Sigatec together, it was based on the why whenever I am in front of the computer watchmaking prowess and legitimacy, the most watchmakers in the semi-industrial suburbs decision to recognize that silicon escapements screen now, I have the watchmaker in mind high-profile example of which is seen in the of Geneva barreling toward a perfected version and hairsprings will be the normal way to do — because he is the one who is going to build staggeringly ambitious ID project of concept of Breguet’s echappement naturel, set free by things within two generations.