There is no doubt that IWC's new integrated facility is its pride and joy, and one that it is proud to show to the world. In our second outing to the heart of German-speaking Switzerland for the opening of the IWC Manufakturzentrum, there are absolutely no limits on photography or video-recording, and we practically breathe down the necks of some of the watchmakers. This is a far cry from four years ago, when we visited IWC's headquarters and its other key facility at nearby Neuhausen, and strict restrictions were placed on photography, as well as where we could venture.
We would want to show it off, too: Located in Merishausen, a Schaffausen municipality just a ten-minute drive away from the brand's headquarters on Baumgartenstrasse, the 13,500 sqm facility makes a definite first impression. Amid a thoroughly verdant setting, it is a long, low-lying building with a facade dominated by floor-to-ceiling glass windows and rigorously rectangular white concrete structures. Partly designed by the brand's CEO, Christoph Grainger-Herr "an architect and interior designer by training" the facility is meant to see IWC at least 50 years into the future.
05. MOVEMENT-PART PRODUCTION
The building houses key processes such as case and movement-part production, as well as movement assembly. Some 1,500 parts are produced at the movement-component production workshop. These include components for base movements, as well as those for complications such as perpetual calendars, annual calendars and tourbillons. Because of the very low tolerances required for these parts “think accuracy to the thousandths of a millimetre” most of the processes here are automated.
Components are later moved to the movement decoration department, where white-coated workers perform their tasks adroitly alongside machines. We saw a young woman apply perlage “or circular engraving” to a small, skeletonised rotor, while a machine nearby applied a similar decoration to bigger movement plates.
