IWC's future

I am creating this new discussion in order to share my views about the current situation of the IWC brand in order to better understand the future changes the company might have to undertake.

I have been a collector and a huge fan of the brand for many years as I fell in love with the outstanding savoir-faire the company puts in its watches.

However, over the past few years, I have observed changes in the business model the company is using that I would liek to share:

-It fells like IWC has put more emphasis and resources on marketing rather than in house development.

-The brand ambassadors the company chose as well as some of the watches it created for them (IWC Ingenieur Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg) are not in line with the heritage of the brand, which used to honour and pay tribute to some of the greatest scientists and explorators of our time. What does formula 1 and a character such as Lewis to do with IWC, which is perceived as an authentic and humble brand?

-IWC has been increasing the number of pieces available for each collection, heavily reducing the sense of exclusivity that comes with the brand.

-ALthough IWC is a company focused on producing timepiece solely for men, an increasing number of women are wearing them. Is it hurting the brand? Is the brand ignoring a potential market if it doesnt cater to women too(all of them, not only the independent, rebellious ones that wear the men versions)?

-Last but not least, the watch market is evolving with the appearance of activity trackers,... and IWC has launched IWC Connect in order to become a payer in the tech oriented watch industry. Is that a move in the right direction?

I guess my underlying questions are: how important is the marketing to IWC? What is IWC's capability in terms of innovation and product development? Should it adopt a more exclusive strategy in order to become more prestigious? Should IWC start to produce watches for women? Should IWC heavily enter the tech oriented watch market and develop further 'connected' watches?

Thank you for reading through and I am looking forward to a fun discussion below!

J

Maybe I am going to answer some of your questions later on, but in my opinion IWC is best informed to answer the questions yous asked. The topics mentioned have been discussed here one way or another quite a few times, you can find them when searching the forum. But the descriptions are often more opinions that facts.

You are new at this forum: welcome! May I ask you some questions in return?
- Which watches by IWC do you like best?
- Can you show some pictures of IWC watches you own?
It is always easier discussing topics when you know each other a bit.

Kind regards,
Paul

J, we have discussed these items a lot here many times very controversally and there is no wrong or right, just personal opinions. You'll find a lot of it in the archives.

• Fact is that IWC is much more successful than 10 or 15 years ago and of course Marketing is very important. If it were not, IWC would probably not even exist anymore and anyway not in the same size and with the same success as today.
• Exclusivity may be important for some, less for others. IWC has some very exclusive timepieces in its program today, especially the Sidereal Scafusia. Brand exclusivity comes with brand image and that is higher than ever before. Is it important? Everybody has to decide. The market loves this.
• I think IWC today develops and produces more inhouse movements than ever before. Not to speak from the complications. You can find them on this website too. There are many, many, many and all the important ones. IWC is leading in that field too. IWC has technical innovation like very few brands.
• You may or may not like the brand ambassadors or the concept behind. I think most of them are VERY cool and interesting people and organizations. Especially the Formula 1 support for the leading Engineering Team makes a lot of sense for the Engineer Watch Line for me. And both F1 pilots are outstanding drivers and fantastic brand ambassadors.
• The IWC women's watches are as interesting as their men's watches today. Just fantastic! They already started again in case you didn't notice.
• The connect feature is a gimmick option for a strap and is not in touch with the all mechanical watches. I don't really care about that.

Just want to share my experience of knowing IWC. Actually I did not know much about watches of IWC before until I saw the online advertisement at YouTube which showing the new collections of Portonfio and this advertisement successfully catch my attention to IWC. Then I started to collect IWC watches and got a Da Vinici Perpetual Calendar 3758 and a Pilot Chronograph 3706 through my father in law last year and purchased Portuguese Yacht Club 3902 in this year too. Well, i am sure that i will collect more in coming future :-)

So I agreed with Tilo that marketing is really necessary for the brand to sustain the momentum of growing. At least, previous marketing effort success to recruit me as one of the IWC collector, ;-)