Roaring masses of water plunge over the gigantic rocks that are the world-famous Rhine Falls. A few kilometres upstream, in Schaffhausen, the Rhine glides at a more leisurely pace past the workshop windows at IWC. Here, more than 150 years ago, a company began a story that is still being written today.

At the tender age of 27, American engineer and watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones had been deputy director and manager with the E. Howard Watch and Clock Co. in Boston, then a leading American watchmaker. At a time when most young men were trying their luck in the west, Jones went in the opposite direction. True to his adventurous pioneering spirit, he planned to combine the outstanding craftsmanship of the Swiss with modern engineering technology from overseas. Unfortunately, his business plan met with unconcealed scepticism from the skilled workers in the Geneva region and the remote valleys of western Switzerland.