We now have a uncommon deal with this situation – an prolonged dialogue with longtime IWC Affiliate Director of Analysis & Growth Stefan Ihnen. The truth is, this situation of Legacy has the excellence of that includes some comparatively new voices for our readers – however you may 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watchmaking, we are likely to rethread the identical topics repeatedly and thus it would really feel like the identical outdated story.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 title on the interview checklist, I needed to have him. Why? The reply is one other title: Ronan Keating.
That’s loads of names to dish out within the introduction to a narrative about one man. And the point out of a pop star from a current however bygone period can have a few of you balking. Since this interview seems in print first, maybe you have 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 may nonetheless see the Irish singer carrying IWC watches.
Someday in 2007, a great 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’d not have an opportunity at a correct sit down till this 12 months. After I completed amusing Ihnen mildly with some Keating references, we received 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 educated formally in each, Ihnen truly got here up by the IWC apprenticeship programme (see under). He started his watchmaking coaching in Germany, changing into a grasp watchmaker in 1997 so he was actually part of the nice 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 need to meet as a result of he constructed up the analysis and improvement 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 tip for Ihnen’s ideas on that, and a short 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 improvement 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 improvement 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, in addition to all of the (particular motion) initiatives. You recognize, to start with, we have been eight or 9 folks in analysis and improvement and now, greater than 20 years later, we’re nearly 50. It was by no means boring! I maintain going with IWC as a result of there’s at all times a brand new undertaking…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 improvement though I don’t have 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 decide slightly bit and when there’s a actually cool undertaking I can (focus my attentions there). I’m within the steering committees so (I’ve some autonomy in what I need to be extra personally concerned in) and naturally I nonetheless do that. Apart from this, it’s actually the concentrate on (watchmaking) approach and the concentrate on folks as nicely. I additionally actually like working with and growing my folks. You recognize, there was a younger man with me 20 years in the past who was an apprentice and he’s now a staff lead, working instantly with me, so that is very nice…
You might be each a watchmaker and an engineer, which is uncommon as a result of most watchmakers aren’t additionally engineers! How do you deal with the conflicts between these views, and between folks in these totally different roles as nicely?
You might be completely proper (on the subject of the rarity of this mixture however not essentially to the cut up between watchmaking and engineering, in addition to the arising conflicts). In any improvement space, or in any enterprise while you give you new stuff and also you need to carry it into manufacturing, there are (naturally) some doubts. There are the standard questions on whether or not the brand new factor is nice, if it’s going to work… You at all times have to beat these boundaries, 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 a great state after they can simply produce components seamlessly. Once you include a brand new product, know-how, materials, the primary response is at all times “will it work?” There will probably 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 a battle; I’m a watchmaker and I’m an engineer. Each points need to coexist completely for the job I’m doing and I’m additionally looking for folks like this (watchmakers who’re additionally engineers) to workers my division. (They don’t seem to be widespread) so fairly often we go for younger watchmakers who’ve the potential (and curiosity) to go research (engineering). This mix – this profile of watchmaker and engineer – it’s good. It’s good for improvement; 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 each side…when you may have each (watchmaking and engineering) views.
With reference to innovation and manufacturing, how do you determine the place to direct your energies? Supplies and calendars? Chronographs?
Sure, now we have to focus slightly bit; it’s not potential to do all the pieces. The truth is, 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 strong 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 looking for assets 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 route.
To be sincere, you might be additionally asking about one thing that entails different parts, like advertising and marketing and gross sales. These choices are made primarily based 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 stated) 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 kinds of moon part (mechanisms and shows); and now we have all types of calendars, from full calendars and annual calendars to perpetual calendars and now the Everlasting Calendar.
For the Everlasting Calendar, all the pieces follows from what (IWC legend) Kurt Klaus did within the Eighties with the perpetual calendar and the moon part perform <see elsewhere this situation – Ed>. For the moon part, again then we had it correct to a one-day deviation in 122 years. Later, we get this to a one-day deviation in 577 years! And now, with the Everlasting Calendar, we’re at one thing like a one-day deviation in 45 million years!
You recognize, 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 could change at 4,000CE and we simply don’t know but, even after we discuss 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 the very 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 consider it, that’s not so far-off. Watchmakers should think about, by 2080 maybe, in the event that they need to promote a perpetual calendar that can solely be perpetual for 20 years or much less. At that time, I believe we at IWC will probably be completely happy 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 keep in mind the type of the Gregorian calendar. Whereas we get into this in- depth final situation, right here is the brief story, which is required to make this closing 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 aren’t leap years; if a 12 months is divisible by 4, 100 and 400, it’s a bissextile year. Successfully, because of this 2100 shouldn’t be a bissextile year and explains why 2000 was. With secular calendars resembling IWC’s Everlasting Calendar, that is now 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 Concern.
For extra on the most recent in luxurious watch reads from WOW, click on right here.
