Letter from President of IWC regarding

“Tour of IWC”

From: Sarp, Michael

Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 08:53:37 +0200

Dear Mr. Friedberg,

I have just read, with great interest, your article “A Tour of IWC” and your impressions from your visit to our factory, which reminded me very much about my first visit to IWC. This was end of 1996, a month prior to joining the company. Coming from a totally different industry and knowing that IWC produces complicated and technically innovative watches, I was expecting to see old watchmakers with grey hair, very experienced and with the company for their whole life. I did not expect to see any woman as a watchmaker.

How amazed was I when I realized that the most complicated watches IWC produces are assembled by young people and half of them are women. The great silence and the intense concentration of the watchmakers, which you described very well, was also something very special for me. Later I have toured quite a lot of VIPs through our factory and I realized that the head of the movement assembly room, which makes the Il Destriero and other complicated watches, Mr. Fischer, is so heavily engaged in his work, he would not even realize, if Mr. Clinton would be toured through our facilities, he would only moan the Swiss “Gruezi” and would not even look.

Interesting for me to learn was that Mr. Fischer, due to his very steady hands, is one of the best pistol shooters in Switzerland. He is also a very successful fisherman in his free time. Most of the people in IWC, so I learned, have very special unique
hobbies. For example Mr. Klaus, whom you met, and who is an inventor. Doesn’t he look like an inventor, with his few hairs standing on end – some kind of an Einstein. Guess what he is doing in his free time? He is breeding greyhound dogs and walks with them throughout the Schaffhausen fields early in the morning. Of course, he continues to invent while walking through the fields, and sometimes he wakes up and realize he has lost one of his dogs. There are many of such stories about IWC’s people clockwork.

Next time you are in Switzerland I hope you will find the time for another visit to Schaffhausen and that I can meet you personally.

Best regards

Michael Sarp

President & CEO of IWC