Annual Manufacturing Volume?

Hi,

How many watches does IWC produce a year? For example in 2010.

Thanks,

Bob

Hi Bob,

IWC officially takes the position that such information should not be disclosed because Richemont is publicly traded. But if you search our archives you'll find some interesting guesses. Use the magnifying glass in the upper right to start a search.

I am interested in "why" you want to know?

I do not actually know the answer to your question - but you should appreciate that IWC takes care with each individual watch - which is numbered and recorded. I would estimate IWC's annual production in 2010 around 43,000. A complete guess - but I bet I am not more that 10% off from that figure.

Michael.

I am surprised at your answer (1) because in the Wristwatch Annual 2011 the annual manufacturing volumes of 4 other Richemont sister companies are listed:

• A. Lange & Sohne > 5,000
• Jaeger-LeCoultre > 50,000
• Officine Panerai > 10,000
• Vacheron Constantin > 20,000

Only IWC withheld its number. (2) I do not understand as a publicly traded company what revealing a rough estimate of output would reveal that is proprietary? I work for a publicly traded company and our sales volume is tracked weekly by analysts and competitors.

Thanks,

Bob

The numbers you quoted for the other Richemont companies are wrong; in one case the error is over 300%. As such please do not assume that they were disclosed by the companies.

I am reporting on IWC's position and not arguing for or against it.

Michael,

I understand. Some companies are listed in the publication as "estimated" and others are listed with numbers. I assumed those not to be estimates but researched numbers by Abbeville Press, the publisher.

What I was able to find on my own was:

• On a pre-Richement tour in 1998 which you attended, Guenther Groetchen stated that IWC produced approximately 35,000 watches per year
• In a more recent article that I found, it stated that IWC produced 79,822 watches in 2009 which does not seem like an arbitrary number but I have no way of verifying it

So based on everything that I was able to find my "SWAG" (some of you must know this acronym!) would be that IWC outputs ~80,000-90,000 watches/year (assuming growth in emerging markets for the brand). This means producing approximately 300 watches per/day which seems in-line with the size of the company,the manufactruing processes and quality of the main collection pieces.

The same publication states that IWC has ~750 employees.

:-)

Bob

This question about watch output comes up every couple of months. I can never figure out why. Does it make any difference? If IWC produced 100,000 watches a year would that make a difference in your purchase of one? How about 40,000?
If watch output was important wouldn't IWC use it as a marketing tool?
Someone please educate me on this . I must be missing the point.

Alan, please consider this as just my opinion.

it is really important to understand the volume of production, because it's strictly related to (I should say it is one of the main indicators to consider, to determine) the quality of the product. As Robert did, this number has a tight relation with number of employees (technicians/watchmakers) for a watchmaking company, this relation may give an indication for the time it has been spent to produce an artefact and/or the final product.

It is an assumption for this reasoning that, the longer it takes to produce one piece, the more application (production phases/handiworks/controls etc.) has been paid by the watch company to reach the final step.

In our conditions, knowing so few, it is really hard to perceive the quality of the product by these numbers and the calculation gets even more complicated by the fact nobody produces everything in-house.

In any case, I would consider this relation, technical employees/number of units produced, as a relevant indicator for determing the quality of a certain product.

Roberto,
Thanks for your reply. I understand and agree with your statement.
However, without accurate information from each watch manufacturer the data seems useless.
And my confusion comes about because the question about watch output seems to mostly come from first time users on this forum. Is this the first question that comes to mind when you sign up for the first time? It does not make sense to me.
I suspect that most people just want to rank the watchmakers and this is the easiest way to do so.

It really has nothing to do with "ranking" but it provides insight into the manufacturing methods used and provides some insight into just how unsual your watch is.

For example, I have two other watches (not IWC) that are made by smaller companies who output ~5,000/year. One company has 35 employees and the other 320. The watches retail in a similar price range. One company obviously leverages its supply chain (movements, cases, dials etc.) more than another. In this case, it does not speak to anything more than a supply chain strategy.

In terms of IWC, I believe that 80,000-90,000 watches/year speaks to the quality that we know that they produce. Keeping in mind that some pieces are made in quite small lots and others are made in lots of thousands. Compared to a manufacturing giant like Rolex, IWC who sells products at a similar price point and produces ~1/10th their volume with a company ~1/3 the the size. This speaks to methods of manufacture and quality.

Knowing how many people the company has provides insight into how much is done internally vs. externally by their supply chain. In the end of the day, none of this really matters other than you like the watch.

My $.02

God's ways are infinite!

As long as it takes to IWC, any question is welcome LOL

Seriously, this is not the case of IWC but simply matching number of employees and number of pieces produced it is possible to dismantle the information advertised by some famous maisons about their (supposed) savoir faire.

And then, it's important to know how many pieces of a single model were made, otherwise how could vintage fans deduce the rarity of a certain model and pay a lot of money for the rarest ones? LOL

A warm hug to Bonnie and to you :)

Without adding fuel to the fire, I do want to say that IWC's growth under the leadership of Georges Kern has been phenomenal. Sales, headcount, green initiatives, facilities, brand marketing and reputation have all soared under Mr. Kern's steerage and for all those reasons, my hat goes off to our fearless leader!

Best,
Larry

Volume depend on model and calibre. If the calibre / complication is in house produced then you can assume a 3-15k / year range, in contrast a stronger output for ETA std calibre 25-50k.

I am going to use assumptions: a factor of 50 for the calibre. The second is the history of the model popularity. A factor of 20 being conservative. Finally, appeals in term of product commercialization and geo-marketed with a factor of 30.

It means to me that if a watch requires a lot of time to produce then greater the quality, cost and lower the volume. So in average for each main category:
Pilot 10k
Aqua. 15k
DaVinci 8k
Portuguese 20k

55k per year.

the demand surpass supply lately? asia and european market is probably the highes segment with the us market catching up fast. IWC watches are not so much in abondance compared to Rolex, Cartier, etc. The number of year IWC model are produced must be low. It seems that IWC repurpose a model every 3 years.

So 150k every 3 years - factor in the underlying price average for IWC model and compare this with the balance sheet with the number of usine plants / employees and revenue per year and you will see that I am not totally off!

Nexus, with respect --and only to stop Internet rumors-- you are totally off.

But I really can't say more. No hints.

I think quality of the product has more to do with the quality of the employees than the quantity of employees and how much work is done by machines and what kind of machines.

My prophecy is true. Every few months a first time poster is interested in this topic. LOL