What a great idea! By the way, I believe Herr Klaus' birthday will be this coming Friday.
I have so many recollections of meetings with Kurt Klaus that it's difficult to know where to begin.
When I went to Schaffhausen in 2001, as newly-appointed moderator of IWC's new forum, it was Herr Klaus who spend a lot of time with me, and we had dinner together.
He became a mentor, and I have been and am both fortunate and honored.
At one IWC event I was talking to Frau Klaus and she said "My husband is a very special man --he's always happy".
So, I'll contribute a few photos:
First, as a very young man --in 1939:
And one of his real favorite activities, with his beloved Whippets:
By the way, one was gravely ill last year, and I suspect is no longer here. As he told me, he understandably wasn't happy, for once.
I always viewed Herr Klaus as a student:
And as a visionary:
And as mentor, not only to me. Here he is with Stephan Ihnen, now IWC's Technical Directior, when IWC first in-house chronograph movement debuted:
And as a true friend of collectors --here we are in Hong Kong:
But mostly I consider Kurt Klaus a friend:
On this evening, he took off his lapel pin, depicting his original Da Vinci, and gave it to me.
He truly is a friend of all collectors. I recall once in Geneva he asked me what I was doing that evening. I said I'm having dinner --Sushi-- with a few collectors. He sheepishly asked "do you mind if I join"?.
In the 1990s, Günter Blümlein --then head of IWC and Lange, told me that some people called Herr Klaus "Einstein". I thought that would be a catchy name for an article and therefore wrote this for another site before I became moderator of this forum in 2001. I like to think that this article helped introduce Kurt Klaus a bit to a broader universe and helped solidify his nickname: click here
Herr Klaus, Alles Gute zum Geburtstag und geniesse den Tag!
