IWC Porsche Design Ocean 2000 Titanium
IWC's history of material innovation goes back to 1980, when it introduced its first titanium watch in collaboration with the French aircraft company Aerospatiale. Only two years later, it teamed up with Porsche Design to create the Ocean 2000 diver, also manufactured entirely out of titanium.
At that point, most dive watches followed a fairly traditional design - often with a steel bracelet and rotating bezel. The IWC Ocean 2000 was entirely different and space-age - made from the light, antimagnetic and hypoallergenic titanium and with an unusual case with an offset crown that tapered into the integrated bracelet. It even had a 2000 metre water resistance rating.
The Ocean 2000 was originally designed for the divers of the Germany Navy, but was also introduced to the civilian market.
IWC
IWC, originally known as the International Watch Company, is the unlikely result of an American businessman's industrial practices applied to traditional Swiss watchmaking. His attempt to industrialise Swiss watchmaking was heavily opposed in French Switzerland, but he found in Schaffhausen a town that welcomed his ideas.
Fast forward to today, IWC stays close to its industrial-age heritage. While the new manufacture looks nothing like the factories of the 19th Century, it still approaches watchmaking with the same efficiency that was unheard of when the company was first conceived.
LessIWC's history of material innovation goes back to 1980, when it introduced its first titanium watch in collaboration with the French aircraft company Aerospatiale. Only two years later, it teamed up with Porsche Design to create the Ocean 2000 diver, also manufactured entirely out of titanium.
At that point, most dive watches followed a fairly traditional design - often with a steel bracelet and rotating bezel. The IWC Ocean 2000 was entirely different and space-age - made from the light, antimagnetic and hypoallergenic titanium and with an unusual case with an offset crown that tapered into the integrated bracelet. It even had a 2000 metre water resistance rating.
The Ocean 2000 was originally designed for the divers of the Germany Navy, but was also introduced to the civilian market.
IWC
IWC, originally known as the International Watch Company, is the unlikely result of an American businessman's industrial practices applied to traditional Swiss watchmaking. His attempt to industrialise Swiss watchmaking was heavily opposed in French Switzerland, but he found in Schaffhausen a town that welcomed his ideas.
Fast forward to today, IWC stays close to its industrial-age heritage. While the new manufacture looks nothing like the factories of the 19th Century, it still approaches watchmaking with the same efficiency that was unheard of when the company was first conceived.