We’ve a uncommon deal with this concern – an prolonged dialogue with longtime IWC Affiliate Director of Analysis & Improvement Stefan Ihnen. In reality, this concern of Legacy has the excellence of that includes some comparatively new voices for our readers – however you’ll be able to uncover that in your personal time. In conventional watchmaking, we are likely to rethread the identical topics repeatedly and thus it would really feel like the identical outdated story. Assembly folks on the forefront of innovation in watchmaking adjustments that dynamic. So far as IWC goes, you might be more likely to listen to from the likes of Christoph Grainger-Herr and Christiaan Knoop and we might have gone that route too however after I noticed Ihnen’s identify on the interview checklist, I needed to have him. Why? The reply is one other identify: Ronan Keating.
That’s quite a lot of names to dish out within the introduction to a narrative about one man. And the point out of a pop star from a latest however bygone period may have a few of you balking. Since this interview seems in print first, maybe you had been tempted to drop the journal or possibly even throw it throughout the room. Nonetheless right here? Let me clarify. IWC collectors of a sure age will recall that Ronan Keating was as soon as a pal of the model, and he stays a collector of IWC watches – the official relationship is a bit nebulous however you’ll be able to nonetheless see the Irish singer sporting IWC watches.
Someday in 2007, a very good a part of the IWC administration staff descended on KL, Malaysia, for the opening of the model’s flagship retailer in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. On that event, I interviewed then-CEO Georges Kern however I paid heed to a younger watchmaker and engineer who was with the staff. Sure, I used to be a technical man proper from the beginning. Anyway, that man was Ihnen and but we might not have an opportunity at a correct sit down till this 12 months. After I completed amusing Ihnen mildly with some Keating references, we obtained all the way down to enterprise.
This being the 12 months of the Everlasting Calendar, we did focus on this however now we have written about that extensively so this dialog begins, because it ought to, with Ihnen himself. A uncommon instance of an engineer and watchmaker who skilled formally in each, Ihnen really got here up by means of the IWC apprenticeship programme (see under). He started his watchmaking coaching in Germany, turning into a grasp watchmaker in 1997 so he was actually part of the good wave of hopeful change that broke over conventional watchmaking on the finish of the twentieth century, and the beginning of the twenty first.
For everybody who loves IWC’s in-house actions and the cool supplies the model makes use of, Ihnen is the person you wish to meet as a result of he constructed up the analysis and growth unit, nearly actually from scratch. His insights into manufacturing additionally reveal a sensible aspect to even model assertion items such because the aforementioned Everlasting Calendar. Stick round until the top for Ihnen’s ideas on that, and a quick reminder of how the entire calendar system works.
Allow us to start with you, and your lengthy historical past with IWC. After such an extended tenure, what retains you going?
Once I began, analysis and growth was only one small group. 4 or 5 years after I joined, we divided this group into actions and instances, and I managed to take over the motion growth half. There was nonetheless lots to do in these days to construct up extra in-house actions, functionalities… So, I needed to develop and construction (the technical division) and that saved me busy, apart from all of the (particular motion) initiatives. , to start with, we had been eight or 9 folks in analysis and growth and now, greater than 20 years later, we’re nearly 50. It was by no means boring! I preserve going with IWC as a result of there may be at all times a brand new mission…some cool new factor; a brand new step in my profession; and new tasks.
What’s your favorite a part of your job?
I nonetheless actually like motion growth though I do not need a lot time as did in my early years after I was devoted to this. Now I’m not so deep into it however as Technical Director, in fact I can cherry choose slightly bit and when there’s a actually cool mission I can (focus my attentions there). I’m within the steering committees so (I’ve some autonomy in what I wish to be extra personally concerned in) and naturally I nonetheless do that. Apart from this, it’s actually the deal with (watchmaking) method and the deal with folks as effectively. I additionally actually like working with and creating my folks. , there was a younger man with me 20 years in the past who was an apprentice and he’s now a staff lead, working straight with me, so that is very nice…
You’re each a watchmaker and an engineer, which is uncommon as a result of most watchmakers will not be additionally engineers! How do you deal with the conflicts between these views, and between folks in these completely different roles as effectively?
You’re completely proper (with reference to the rarity of this mixture however not essentially to the cut up between watchmaking and engineering, in addition to the arising conflicts). In any growth space, or in any enterprise while you give you new stuff and also you wish to deliver it into manufacturing, there are (naturally) some doubts. There are the same old questions on whether or not the brand new factor is nice, if it’ll work… You at all times have to beat these obstacles, I might say, and persuade folks…and I imply this isn’t nearly watchmakers and engineers. The folks concerned in manufacturing of parts are in an excellent state once they can simply produce components seamlessly. Whenever you include a brand new product, know-how, materials, the primary response is at all times “will it work?” There can be reactions like, “Oh I attempted it and it took me half an hour longer than earlier than.” It’s a must to overcome this; it’s a part of the enterprise, to place it merely.
For me there isn’t any battle; I’m a watchmaker and I’m an engineer. Each facets need to coexist completely for the job I’m doing and I’m additionally trying to find folks like this (watchmakers who’re additionally engineers) to workers my division. (They aren’t frequent) so fairly often we go for younger watchmakers who’ve the potential (and curiosity) to go examine (engineering). This mixture – this profile of watchmaker and engineer – it’s good. It’s good for growth; it’s good for coverage administration; it’s good for industrialisation; and it’s good for work within the laboratory. For me, it’s actually a profit to have either side…when you may have each (watchmaking and engineering) views.
With regards to innovation and manufacturing, how do you resolve the place to direct your energies? Supplies and calendars? Chronographs?
Sure, now we have to focus slightly bit; it isn’t potential to do the whole lot. In reality, now we have (what we name) the innovation roadmap, which is strategic. You talked about being restricted (a part of the dialog edited out, this was about IWC’s status and standing as a maker of sturdy watches, with extra to do with engineering than high-quality artwork) however actually it’s being true to who we (IWC) are, what we stand for and what we’re profitable with. I imply, our founder (Florentine Ariosto Jones, of the aforementioned Jones calibre) got here to Switzerland searching for sources to make watches on an industrial scale. So, we make complicated watches like perpetual calendars and chronographs with fewer components as a result of that makes them extra sturdy. This isn’t a limitation however extra like a path.
To be sincere, you might be additionally asking about one thing that entails different components, like advertising and marketing and gross sales. These choices are made based mostly on numbers (gross sales figures and so forth) however what I’m speaking about is the strategic view on (the watches we work on), therefore the innovation roadmap. So on the supplies aspect, it’s titanium, ceramic and now Ceratanium. On actions, it’s (additionally precisely as you mentioned) calendars and chronographs. IWC is (one of many solely ones) with a digital show for years on the perpetual calendar; now we have a number of forms of moon section (mechanisms and shows); and now we have every kind of calendars, from full calendars and annual calendars to perpetual calendars and now the Everlasting Calendar.
For the Everlasting Calendar, the whole lot follows from what (IWC legend) Kurt Klaus did within the Nineteen Eighties with the perpetual calendar and the moon section operate
, 2100 could appear far-off for us, however there are folks born now who will see it. Possibly our children too (or their youngsters). So yeah, the Gregorian calendar itself might change at 4,000CE and we simply don’t know but, even once we speak with physicists (Astrophysicist and science communicator Professor Brian Cox was talking on this topic at WWG this 12 months). The Everlasting Calendar is right up until that 12 months, which is one of the best anybody can do (even computer systems can do no higher) and possibly that could be a bit too far off for a sensible profit. However 2100? If you concentrate on it, that isn’t so far-off. Watchmakers must contemplate, by 2080 maybe, in the event that they wish to promote a perpetual calendar that may solely be perpetual for 20 years or much less. At that time, I believe we at IWC can be blissful to have one thing just like the Everlasting Calendar as a result of perpetual calendars are going to fail then for the primary time!
Perpetual calendars are made to consider the type of the Gregorian calendar. Whereas we get into this in- depth final concern, right here is the quick story, which is required to make this remaining level make sense. Leap years add a day in February and yearly divisible by 4 is such a 12 months. However this over-corrects the issue. So, the calendar has extra mathematical divisions as a repair. All years divisible by 4 and 100 will not be leap years; if a 12 months is divisible by 4, 100 and 400, it’s a bissextile year. Successfully, because of this 2100 is just not a bissextile year and explains why 2000 was. With secular calendars corresponding to IWC’s Everlasting Calendar, that is not a difficulty. Ihnen’s level in regards to the 12 months 4,000 CE is reference to a proposed change to the calendar that might happen then however has not been agreed upon.
This text first appeared on WOW’s Legacy 2025 Difficulty.
For extra on the newest in luxurious watch reads from WOW, click on right here.
