A DIALOGUE BETWEEN ENGINEERING AND CRAFTSMANSHIP: IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN PARTICIPATES IN HOMO FABER EXHIBITION
A DIALOGUE BETWEEN ENGINEERING AND CRAFTSMANSHIP: IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN PARTICIPATES IN HOMO FABER EXHIBITION
Schaffhausen/Venice, 2nd September: IWC Schaffhausen exhibits at Homo Faber in Venice. This year, the immersive craftsmanship exhibition explores the overarching theme “The Journey of Life” by celebrating life’s standout moments and everyday simplicities through 10 themed spaces. Set in Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, IWC showcases under the theme “Dialogues”. The Swiss luxury manufacturer presents its Perpetual Studio, explaining its unique engineering approach to fine watchmaking, alongside the main highlights of its new Portugieser collection. Live demonstrations showing a high complication watch being assembled will take place throughout the entire duration of the exhibition from 1 to 30 September 2024.
Organised by the non-profit Michelangelo Foundation, Homo Faber is an internationally renowned cultural exhibition dedicated to showcasing the finest craftsmanship. From watchmakers and jewellers to leather artisans and potters, the exhibition brings different disciplines together at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. IWC Schaffhausen participates in the third edition and jointly explores the overarching theme “The Journey of Life” with fellow craftspeople. Across ten themed spaces, visitors have the opportunity to meet the craftspeople and observe them working on various objects that accompany humans through life.
Homo Faber is such a unique exhibition about the everlasting beauty of craftsmanship; an inspiring space in the heart of Venice bringing together objects and talents from all over the world. We are excited to showcase our Perpetual Studio alongside fellow craftspeople and to demonstrate how a continuous dialogue of engineering and craftsmanship shapes our unique culture in fine watchmaking
IWC Schaffhausen exhibits in the Ex-Nautico School under the theme “Dialogues,” which explores the transmission and collaboration between craftspeople and designers. Fittingly, the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer is presenting its unique engineering approach to fine watchmaking, with its Perpetual Studio. When the American watchmaker and engineer Florentine Ariosto Jones founded IWC Schaffhausen more than 150 years ago, he brought a new engineering perspective to Swiss watchmaking. Since then, IWC’s watchmaking philosophy has been based on an intensive dialogue about engineering and craftsmanship and a close collaboration between engineers, watchmakers, artisans, designers and other specialists.
THE PORTUGIESER EXEMPLIFIES IWC’S ENGINEERING APPROACH
From the Portugieser Grande Complication and the Portugieser Sidérale Scafusia to the new Portugieser Eternal Calendar, the Portugieser collection perfectly embodies the continuous dialogue between engineering and craftsmanship. The Portugieser Eternal Calendar (Ref. IW505701) is a testament to the manufacturer’s extensive expertise in the field of mechanical calendars. As IWC’s first ever secular perpetual calendar, it is the continuation of the journey Kurt Klaus began with his ingenious perpetual calendar in the 1980s. In the Perpetual Studio, IWC explains the calendar’s 400-year gear, which omits three leap years over 400 years and completes just one revolution in four centuries. The functioning of the moon phase is also on show. Thanks to a newly engineered reduction gear train with three intermediate wheels, the display will only deviate by one day after more than 45 million years.
The Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Day & Night (Ref. IW545901) is also displayed. With its unique day and night display using a small, rotating sphere, the complication was developed based on a concept from a former IWC watchmaker trainee. Next to the Perpetual Studio, visitors can discover the highlights from IWC’s new Portugieser collection, including the new Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 (Ref. IW5037) or the new Portugieser Automatic 42 (Ref. IW5017). These timepieces feature re-engineered cases with slimmer case rings and double box-glass sapphire crystals, as well as elaborately finished dials in new colours called Horizon Blue, Obsidian, Dune and Silver Moon.
Throughout the month-long exhibition, watchmakers from the IWC Manufakturzentrum in Schaffhausen will give live demonstrations, offering visitors rare insights into the assembly of a tourbillon and finishing of a moon disc. The patented digital magnifying glass known as the Cyberloupe® enables visitors to get a closer look at the tiny components in the movement.
HOMO FABER
Homo Faber 2024: The Journey of Life takes place in Venice from 1 to 30 September. It is the third edition of Homo Faber Biennial, a celebration of contemporary craftsmanship curated by the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship, a non-profit institution based in Switzerland, which champions craftspeople worldwide with the aim of promoting a more human, inclusive and sustainable future. homofaber.com
IWC Schaffhausen is a leading Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen in the north-eastern part of Switzerland. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant to sports watches. Founded in 1868 by the American watchmaker and engineer Florentine Ariosto Jones, IWC is known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, combining the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes.
Over its more than 150-year history, IWC has earned a reputation for creating professional instrument watches and functional complications, especially chronographs and calendars, which are ingenious, robust, and easy for customers to use. A pioneer in the use of titanium and ceramics, IWC today specialises in highly engineered watch cases manufactured from advanced materials, such as coloured ceramics, Ceratanium®, and titanium aluminide.
A leader in sustainable luxury watchmaking, IWC sources materials responsibly and takes action to minimise its impact on the environment. Along the pillars of transparency, circularity, and responsibility, the brand crafts timepieces built to last for generations and continuously improves every element of how it manufactures, distributes, and services its products in the most responsible way. IWC also partners with organisations that work globally to support children and young people.
