August 27 2018 was a special day for IWC : the official opening of the new manufaktur.
More info about the building can be found here : press.iwc.com/manufakturzentrum-en/
The opening ceremony was great, about 130 people were invited. Chris Grainger-Herr gave an inspiring speech, politicians spoke nice words about the importance of IWC for the region and then the factory was official declared opened , not with cutting a ribbon, but by turning the time machine from 1868 to 2018, done by three people, Chris the CEO, Kurt Klaus and a young watchmaker from IWC representing the history and the future. Well done.
There is a nice press article from IWC that you can read here : press.iwc.com/manufakturenzentrum-opening-en/
And here are some additional pictures that I took. As you see sometimes in good company .
The ever young and friendly couple Klaus, greeting the collectors
Meeting up with Andreas Voll, [color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9)]Chief Operating Officer, the factory is a bit his baby, and Hannes Pantli.[/color]
Chris during his inspiring speech.
From 1868 to 2018, looking with confidence to the future.
Meeting up with Herr Homberger is always a treat, lot's of stories about the history of IWC, he is a great friend of the collectors.
The tour of the factory was in small groups, each of them with a member of senior managment. My group was together with Christian Knoop.
As a gift, we received a building kit so we can build our own little manufakturzentrum.
