mechanical watches whats the point?

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Her er lidt research på IWC fra deres hjemmeside:
Deres egen version af firmaet i de kritiske år.

Det er interessant at bemærke, at 1973 var IWC's bedste år siden 1945! ( Mon det stadigvæk passer?)

Jens-Kristian

In the 1970s and 80s, the Swiss watchmaking industry underwent a phase of far-reaching technological change. Following in the wake of the use of miniaturized electric batteries as a source of energy for wristwatches from the late 1940s onwards and the invention of the transistor in 1947, purely mechanical watch technology developed into a hybrid discipline of precision mechanics and electronics.
IWC read the signs of technological progress very well and managed to avoid investing heavily in expensive and misguided technologies, such as the electronically controlled balance. The UHRENFABRIK H. E. HOMBERGER co-founded and was a shareholder in the "Centre Electronique l'Horlogerie Suisse" (CEH) in Neuchâtel and was financially involved in the development of the Beta 21 quartz wristwatch movement, which was first presented to the public at the 1969 Industrial Fair in Basel. In actual value terms, this movement accounted for about 5-6% of total sales of quartz watches. Parallel to this, the company expanded its collection of jewellery watches to include ladies watches with mechanical movements. Nineteen seventy-three was IWC's most successful of the post-war period.

The cataclysmic rise in gold prices in 1974 had grave consequences for the watch exporting industry. Between 1970 and 1974 the price of gold rose from 4850 to 18 000 francs and the value of the dollar against the Swiss currency plummeted by up to 40%. As a result, the price of watch exports rose by as much as 250%. At the same time Japan was flooding the market with cheap quartz watches.
A change of direction was necessary and this led to the adoption of a number of measures. IWC continued to uphold the values of traditional watchmaking but at the same time surprised the market with one innovation after another. It built up a line of top-quality pocket watches and, apart from setting up its own modern wristwatch and case manufacturing facilities began working closely with Ferdinand A. Porsche as an external designer. In 1978 the company launched its first compass watch and this was followed by the ground-breaking introduction of titanium as a material for use in watches and cases.

The man responsible for this epochal change of direction was Otto Heller, Director and Chief Executive Office

For its new plans IWC required a high level of venture capital. With the help of the Swiss Banking Corporation, the company was put in contact with VDO Adolf Schindling AG, which took a majority interest in IWC in 1978.

At the same time, IWC reacquired the name it had originally been given by its founder F.A. Jones (INTERNATIONAL WATCH CO. AG), which regained its original significance as a result of the change.

In 1981, Otto Heller succeeded H.E. Homberger as general manager following the latter's retirement on age grounds. The new director, Günter Blümlein, pushed for rapid implementation of planned changes, put the existing advertising campaign to work, built up a young and free-spending customer base and put the company firmly back on the road to success.

In 1991 IWC director Günter Blümlein founded the LMH Group with its headquarters in Schaffhausen. With a 100% stake in IWC, 60% in Jaeger-LeCoultre and 90% in the Saxony-based watchmaking company of Lange & Söhne, the Group employs some 1440 persons.