Yet, surprisingly, only a small handful of watch companies fully recognize this truth. Certainly, they all produce watches with elements derived from history. All industrial designs evolve from precedents. For more than a century, the Swiss lever escapement has been the basic structural component common to almost all mechanical watches. As are many details: from the use of numerals to the shapes of hands based on 19th century designs.

While any search for new techniques and new designs is desirable, I would maintain that should not be done by dismissing history. Leaving tradition behind is unfortunate, because it dismisses any value to universal principles, all of which have been proven over time. Innovation is essential, but it should exist within a context to have meaning.

Fortunately, the very best watch companies not only understand tradition but also embrace it as an integral part of their product line. Rather than invent history, there is an embedded understanding of the past that is communicated to the here and now. This, in turn, produces a product that will last more than one lifetime. It does not minimize innovation, but rather looks at it as part of a continuum.

Of the few watch companies that truly respect, understand and perpetuate their heritage, IWC stands front and center. Its history is represented in every watch IWC produces. Watch collectors who do not understand the value of heritage deny themselves a true pleasure by missing something essential. To appreciate fully IWC watches means to comprehend their tradition.

For the first half-century of existence, IWC was primarily a pocket watch company. Those watches were diverse but had a defining, if not singular, quality. They were manufactured by IWC and highly engineered. They represented "Probus Scafusia": good, solid, basic and honest craftsmanship direct from Schaffhausen.

From that foundation, IWC produced wristwatches that turned out to be iconic examples over its second half-century. They stood for more than simply being well-made mechanical timekeeping devices worn on a wrist instead of in a pocket. They were all produced before the age of marketing, as we all know it today, and there was no intent to produce any iconic model, let alone a cult watch. These models just evolved, and it is only in the past few decades that their greatness has been fully recognized.

First came the genre of pilot's watches. For more than seven decades, IWC has always produced remarkable watches for aviators. In the 1930s, it produced a "special watch for aviators" that subsequently has been called the Mark 9. Then in 1940, using a modified pocket watch movement, IWC produced its now famous oversized B-Uhr or navigator's watch for the German Air Force. IWC also produced the legendary Mark 11 watch in the late 1940s and, in the following decades, the company made those watches for the Royal Air Force and other Commonwealth militaries.

IWC's pilot watches are all icons and highly collectible. They are all basic watches -no frills and no complications. As "tool watches", they represent IWC's illustrious history. They stand for uncompromising engineering and they stand for global adventure. And today they are highly sought rarities by collectors throughout the world.

In the late 1930s, IWC started to produce another watch which subsequently has become an icon: the Portuguese. This watch used an actual pocket watch movement housed in a wristwatch case. Oversized for its time, with the engineering and accuracy of a pocket watch, this model today has a huge collectors' demand. A true oversized watch, this model spawned an entire design generation of other models by IWC from 1993 to today. With only 674 original Portuguese watches identified today, based on the momentary status of research, the vintage model is considered by many collectors to be the epitome of their collection.

Likewise, IWC's 1955 introduction of the Ingenieur produced what now is a third icon. This watch is IWC. It was developed as a synthesis of the antimagnetic Pilot's Watch with IWC's then relatively new automatic movement. If watches could talk, this one would speak IWC. Highly engineered and with the innovative Pellaton winding system. Basic. Functional. Almost bullet-proof. This watch has withstood the test of time and in various versions has prospered for more than 50 years. Like vintage Pilot's Watches and vintage Portuguese watches, the original Ingenieur has earned its place as a legend.

In the 1960s, still another legend was born, but like the others it is doubtful that IWC knew it then. That watch was the Ref. 812 Aquatimer Automatic from 1967. While not the world's first diving watch, it has become a classic in its own right. It did not own a fancy design, especially when compared to some of the gaudy diving watches of the era. However, its classic design, including its rotating inner bezel with a second crown, has evolved until today. Now, justifiably the price of a prime vintage example has soared.

In the late 1960s the Swiss watch industry also wanted to break away from classic round watch design. It was the Age of Aquarius, of the Beatles and bell bottom trousers. New designs evolved, aesthetically and mechanically. The revolutionary new Beta-21 quartz movement, based on the first quartz prototype watch movement developed in 1962-1966 by a Swiss research group, was introduced by IWC and other companies in 1969. IWC then used the movement in its then-new Da Vinci model. That radical design, like the completely novel movement, represented still another benchmark.

But the invention of quartz-power almost buried the Swiss mechanical watch industry. IWC pondered what to do, and for a while considered becoming a specialty mechanical pocket watch manufacturer. It produced several complicated pocket watches, but on the whole they did not sell in volume. One day, IWC's chief watchmaker at the time, Kurt Klaus, and IWC's designer from the 1980s, Hano Burtscher, were discussing one pocket watch model, Ref. 5250 which had a moon phase function. With a few swift lines drawn on a cocktail napkin in 1984, that model was converted into a wristwatch. The new model was the Ref. 5251, the now famous Portofino Moonphase.

The Portofino moonphase was a huge wristwatch for its time, at 46 mm in diameter. Most would think that it didn't sell well due to its large size and commensurate price. But that also meant few were produced, and today, it has become a collector's rarity. It jump-started the entire Portofino line at IWC which has grown and prospered for two decades. With hindsight, this rare model from 1984 might have been as much of the precursor of today's large watch trend as the original Portuguese, and the revival of the Portuguese in 1993.

It is noteworthy that the Portofino Moonphase was a wristwatch with a pocket watch movement. It has evolved to a legend, just like two other key models by IWC that were wristwatches with pocket watch movements: the original B-Uhr, or Big Pilot's Watch, from 1940 and the original Portuguese. None of these was an invented large watch, with a small movement in a large case. Rather, all emanate from IWC's history as a pocket watch manufacturer.

All six models of these legendary watches were different, but all have for more in common than the name "IWC". They were produced originally over a span of five decades and none was developed, designed or marketed to become a cult watch. They all varied in size, in purpose, in movements and dial design. Yet, they all were Probus Scafusia through and through. They evolved from a pre-eminent pocket watch tradition: a tradition of highly-tooled, well-smithed fine engineering.

Perhaps with the understandable exception of the Da Vinci, they all represented design for the primary sake of function. It was almost Bauhaus design, but more properly Schaffhausen design. Plus Schaffhausen implementation. All stood, without a doubt, for the exceptional company that represents the engineers of watchmaking.

For collectors, assembling a collection of these vintage models is no easy task. These are icons and rare. Demand has ramped up immeasurably over the past decade, and these models, when then can be found, can be extraordinarily expensive. Few are pristine and authenticity can sometimes be an issue, as can service history. While old parts generally exist, watches from 70 years ago, or even a few decades less, frequently need repairs which can also be costly and time-consuming.

It is within this context that IWC celebrates its 140th anniversary in 2008. It is celebrating its watches and, in particular, six of its most iconic models. IWC has done so by once again resolving to keep time with the past. If a sense of values means to understand what truly matters, then the classics in any fine endeavor are just that. The watches that survive the test of time, and for all of timekeeping, will always include these six IWC models.

IWC now has decided to infuse their vintage models with renewed spirit. The company has created timepieces that pay homage to the past yet stake out a bold future. These are the original vintage models, but they are also much more. They show mostly new, larger cases. Within those cases are contemporary IWC in-house movements. The parts that move within the cases are not merely restatements of the past, but rather state of the art. The movements are in-house and totally contemporary, but they rely on the past. These movements have finishing and design principles based on IWC's great historical movements. They are not merely well-made and accurate movements, but also philosophic statements.

In a sense, this now is a collector's fantasy come true. Take the best of the past: the rarest, the most interesting, and the clear icons. And then respect their historical decisive moment by crafting them for the next age. Make them new, make them exciting, and make them uniquely "IWC".

This is IWC's noble way to celebrate its history and to respect a second-to-none tradition. Going back to a celebrated heritage not only bridges the here and now but also melds the two forever. With a renewed homage to the best of style and to the finest in watchmaking, IWC defines its staying power. In making time with tradition, IWC has traveled through time. It has gone from history to the future.

Happy 140th birthday, IWC!

Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.