IWC Schaffhausen: 447 watches with prices

IWC Schaffhausen Watches

Swiss watch brand IWC Schaffhausen has the unique history of being founded by an American in 1868. Florentine Ariosto Jones of Boston sailed to Switzerland to find a place to produce the watches of his dreams. He established the first true production facility for watchmaking, harnessing the power of the Rhine River. Today, IWC is owned by the Richemont Group and is known for its complications, pilot’s watches, Aquatimer dive watches, and the beloved Portugieser and Portofino collections.

History of IWC Schaffhausen

The International Watch Company (IWC) is a luxury watch manufacturer headquartered in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Florentine Ariosto Jones, an American, founded the company in 1868 to combine Swiss watchmaking craftsmanship with American engineering techniques to manufacture watch movements and components.

With the assistance of watch manufacturer Heinrich Moser, who built the town’s first hydroelectric plant, Jones rented the first factory in Schaffhausen in 1869. IWC quickly expanded its watch production with the help of local watchmakers, and by 1875 the company moved its factory to a privately owned building.

Johann Rauschenbach-Vogel, a machine manufacturer from Schaffhausen, took over the IWC in 1880 and renamed it Uhrenfabrik von J. Rauschenbach. A year later, in 1881, Johann Rauschenbach-Vogel passed away, leaving his son Johannes Rauschenbach-Schenk to run the company. The brand’s first horological discovery occurred in 1885, when IWC introduced of the world’s first digital watch.

After Johannes Rauschenbach-Schenk died in 1905 his son-in-law Ernst Jakob Homberger took over the company and renamed it Uhrenfabrik von Ernst Homberger-Rauschenbach. Between 1930 and 1945, IWC was one of five watch manufacturers that built observation watches (B-Uhren) for the German air force.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the Swiss watchmaking industry underwent a far-reaching technological change due to the quartz crisis and the explosive rise in gold prices. For the sake of survival, IWC, under the leadership of Director and CEO Otto Heller, developed a line of high-quality pocket watches and set up its modern wristwatch and case manufacturing facilities.

In 1991, IWC director Günter Blümlein founded the LMH Group with its headquarters in Schaffhausen. It had a 100% stake in IWC, a 60% stake in Jaeger-LeCoultre, and a 90% stake in A. Lange & Söhne. In July 2000, Richemont acquired LMH for CHF 2.8 billion.