Simple question: When did IWC make their first wristwatch?
I have a watch that IWC factory records say was made as a wristwatch in 1906, which I thought was pretty early, but the IWC website says,
"The end of the 19th century saw the appearance of IWC’s first wristwatches featuring the 64-calibre pocket watch movement."
I didn't know that IWC made wristwatches before 1900. Does anyone know of an IWC factory-made wristwatch (not a later conversion) earlier than 1906?
Dear David
Sorry, I can't give you a final answer to your question.
I took a photo of my two oldest IWC Borgel watches and a part of the answer is the background (Sammelband 2007).
Besides, if you recognize the straps of my two watches that shows that your guess is right...
The text says that in 1899, cal 64 was used for the first time to create the first wristwatches. But the photo is of a later Borgel watch. It would be very interesting to know if any of those wirstwatches from 1899 still exist or if that claim is based on information from the books.
Is there an old wristwatch in the IWC museum in Schaffhausen?
I examined that question more closely during the collectors' meeting on August 24.
A page from a catalogue dated 1917 shows a wristwatch with a Borgel case.
I also found these two wristwatches:
The description says:
A closer look to the open case back shows the numbers of the case and the caliber.
This cal 64 was produced in 1913 and the case around 1916. So there may be something wrong with the description...
As far as I remember the following golden Borgel watch was in a different display case of the museum, but it was an older version too.
I am sorry for the deformed photos. The forum software or me may have problems with the start in 2025 :-)
Dear Wil. Ma.,
Thanks for your information. I also noticed the distortion of photos, so I didn't post any pictures of my watch.
I don't recognise the book in the background of your first photo; please provide the reference.
The watch in the book is certainly much later than 1900; skeletonised hands and numerals for luminous pain were not used for wristwatches before the First World War. It would be interesting to see factory records or a watch showing that IWC made wristwatches in 1899.
Kind regards,
David
Dear David
The background of the first photo shows the IWC catalogue of 2007. My catalogues are in German so I can not provide the original English text. Maybe the title of the English version is "Collection 2007".
In the meantime, I looked in the catalogues of some other years. In 2004 there was a similar text about the brand's history also telling that the first wristwatches were sold in 1899. This catalogue has also a kind of timeline that shows 1899 together with the selling of the first wristwatches.
Interestingly the catalogue of 2002/03 has a similar timeline but there 1898 is mentioned together with the start of the installation of small pocket watch movements in the newly emerging wristwatches.
So there seems to be a lack of some months between the start of production and the first sell.
I wonder what those first wristwatches looked like.
Dear all
When dating a vintage/antique IWC people tend to be imprecise: Which date is given? Year of production of the movement, year of production of the case, year of sale to a wholesaler, year of sale to a retailer, year of sale to the end customer?
I'm not a member of the marketing nor of the museum team of IWC. But I assume the statement, the first IWC wristwatch is dating back to 1899 refers to a watch in the stock of the company's museum. The movement, a pin set Cal. 64, has been produced in 1898, the gold case in 1899 and it was billed to a Russian jeweler in 1899, who might have acted as wholesaler, but had a retail outlet as well. As in these days it was customary in the trade to take watches on commission only, he presumably resold the watch in 1899 and was charged afterwards for it by IWC. That might explain the different dates given in different IWC catalogues: Until the early 2000s the IWC archive comprised only the notes on the production series of the movements. So the watch presumably originally was dated according to its movement number as 1898. Later on the movement control and sales ledgers were found, what allowed to redate the watch as of 1899, the year of sale to that jeweler.
It is said the end customer was a young cadet of the garde. However, the ledgers of IWC in most cases show only its direct customer, in this case said Russian jeweler. So I would not qualify the information on the young cadet as information, which is undebatable.
With respect to conversions: We have no information on details of the case orders placed by IWC those days. From an economic point of view in these days serial production of wristwatch cases made no sense due to the low to not existing demand. On the other hand single-unit production would have been very expensive. So my educated guess is, that until around 1910 all wristwatch cases made of precious metals are based on ladies watchcases in hunter orientation and got logs soldered on. The case might be different with steel cases as it is more difficult to attach lugs to steel. But as said: It is an educated guess only.
Best regards
Th. Koenig
Dear Thomas,
Thank you for your reply.
You say, “When dating a vintage/antique IWC, people tend to be imprecise: Which date is given? Year of production of the movement, year of production of the case, year of sale to a wholesaler, year of sale to a retailer, year of sale to the end customer?”
People do tend to be imprecise. However, the date is clear, and we can and should be more precise.
Making IWC watches began with collecting raw materials and assigning a batch of serial numbers. These dates are recorded in the book about IWC by Tölke and King. Some people take these as showing a movement's production date, but that is wrong. Although the first movements of the batch were finished (final machined, gilded, jewelled, escaped, etc.), soon after the serial numbers were allocated, others were finished later. In the case of a slow-selling calibre, this could be years later. For example, some of the ‘Fishtail’ calibres, 71 Lépine and 72 savonnette, were never finished, and the unfinished materials sold, so the date of their serial number cannot be the date of their production.
Sometime after the serial numbers were allocated, some of the raw materials, usually in sets of 12, were taken from stock and finished into movements. For some customers, such as Stauffer & Co., at this point, the branding required by the customer was applied by stamping before other finishing operations were done. Around the same time, the case would be ordered from the maker. Gold and silver cases were expensive, so IWC did not maintain a stock of cases but ordered them when needed. So, in the absence of other records, a case's production date is a better proxy for the date of making the watch than the movement serial number.
The finished movement was then fitted with a dial and hands, placed in the case, and the stem attached. When the worker finished turning the screw that holds the stem in place and closed the case back, that is when the watch was finished. One might say that this is the date when it was “made”, but semantically, that is awkward. I would say the watch was made during a relatively short period when the raw materials were turned into a finished movement, the dial and hands attached and the assembly placed into a case. After this, the watch would be tested before being dispatched from the factory.
I don't see how the year of sale to a wholesaler (although this would usually be shortly after the watch was finished), year of sale to a retailer, or year of sale to the end customer could be taken as the date of production of a watch.
Watches in hunter cases with lugs soldered on do not make satisfactory wristwatches. The locations of the 12 at the top of the dial, the crown at three and the sub-seconds at 6 o'clock are correct, but the hunter lid defeats the object of a wristwatch, requiring two hands to read the time. This is why wristwatches were made by putting a savonnette movement into a Lépine (open face) case. Rather than try to turn a savonnette case into a wristwatch case by soldering on lugs and removing the lid, IWC (who didn't manufacture cases) would have ordered Lépine cases with lugs attached from the case manufacturers. This could be done in small batches to match the number of sets of raw materials being finished.
You mention an IWC wristwatch dating back to 1899 in the company's museum's stock. Are there any more details of this watch available without visiting the museum? In particular, the details of its manufacture as a wristwatch rather than being later converted from a lady's pocket watch?
Dear David
Firstly I have to admit my phrasing of my post imprecise/misunderstandable: Of course to make a wristwatch from a<ladies pocket watch case you need a hunter orientated movement, but a Lepine case (except for the few real hunters and halfhunters seen on the market).
Regarding dating I didn't say, the date of the sale to a wholesaler should be defined as the production date. But many people do so for the simple reason that the Certificates of Authenticity issued by IWC give the date of the bill to the wholesaler (except for few watches billed to individuals or directly to retailers). Others have a look in the Tölke/King and some look in the case or movement book. And I mentioned these different possibilities for the simple reason to explain the difference in time given for the watch we talk about in older and younger catalogues of the 21st century.
To me a watch has been"produced" when it is in terms of bookkeeping no longer "work in progress", but ready for sale. The production from the first production steps until the status "ready for sale" is reached for sure takes months, with slow movers years.
Besides that my notion is we agree, that in the early days there were no special wristwatch cases, but ladies watch cases were modified by soldering lugs on serial products.
Regarding that watch from 1899 (year the case was sourced and the watch sold) the IWC Museum might have additional info. But I'm pretty sure they can't say for sure, whether the case was already ordered with lugs soldered on, the lugs were soldered on at IWC or soldered on by its Russian customer or even later years after the first purchase. The respective ledgers are not that detailed, not the case books nor the sales records. And to determine by an examination of the case, in which year and by whom the lugs were soldered on, in my opinion is impossible. At best by checking the ingredients of the solder it might be possible to give a range of a decade or two, when this job was done.
Th. Koenig
It’s true that IWC started experimenting with wristwatches toward the end of the 19th century, but examples from that era are incredibly rare. The statement on their website about using the 64-calibre pocket watch movement likely refers to very limited production, as wristwatches were not yet mainstream.
Your 1906 example is fascinating, as it predates the widespread adoption of wristwatches. It aligns with IWC’s gradual transition from pocket watches to wristwatches during that period. While there are rumors of IWC producing wristwatches before 1900, confirmed examples with factory records are scarce.
If your watch has factory documentation confirming it as a wristwatch and not a conversion, it’s certainly a remarkable piece of history! It might not predate 1900, but it could still be one of the earliest documented IWC wristwatches.
The 2007 catalogue tells us about the first IWC wristwatch in 1899, but there is reason to suspect that this was one sole wristwatch, and in the following years, wristwatches were still rare. Therefore, I looked at the first catalogues. The 1911 catalogue of J. Rauschenbach's Erben vormals International Watch Company mentions no wristwatches at all.
The next one in 1914 then shows even photos of wristwatches!
This could be a first effect of ww1, that led to the run on wristwatches in 1914. But this catalogue shows no "extras" for wristwatches like radium dials, which were often offered as an option.
David, in my opinion, your 1906 watch is very special, as it was very likely a prototype or watch for test or review for Stauffer & Co. This was a success and led to many more similar watches by IWC/Borgel for Staufer & Co in the following approximately 20 years.