Is ICW an IWC?

I have recently found a vintage watch that has a sign Intercontinental watch
on the dial. According to the Mikrolisk base Intercontinental Watch was a
subbrand of IWC. It appears that the brand Intercontinental watch was
registred in 1949. by International Watch co. (IWC)/ E.Homberger-Rauschenbach.

The movement is signed I.C.W. and it looks a lot like Unitas 160 (see the last
figure below).

So, what is it? Was Intercontinental Watch for IWC something like Tudor is for
Rolex? A cheaper subbrand. Is this an IWC movement or a version of Unitas 160?
I would appreciate any info.

Thanx in advance,

Ed

This is how the watch looks
like:

I never heard or read that Intercontinal watch has anything to do with IWC.

In the past there were cooperations with other companies such as Stauffer,
Unitas, Zentra and IWC made movements for Cartier, Tiffany, Turler etc.

These movements were not signed IWC but had the name of the company which
bought them on the movement and dial.

This movement has nothing to do with IWC and has not been not described in any
IWC literature.

I am sorry, but this is not IWC.

Regards,

Adrian,

(alwaysiwc).

unfortunetly I do not think that is an IWC. Never heard of anything like that
from IWC

Thanx,

I agree that it is not a proper IWC. However this trade mark „Intercontinental
Watch" was registered by H.E Homberger from Schaffhausen, in 1949. My source
is the „Indicateur Suisse" (Marque de fabrique deposees en Suisse) from 1965.
There is also the registration number 130615. See the attached image with that
entry. Now, we know that H.E.Homberger was the ovner of IWC in 50', so we can
at least say that the two companies had the same owner.

I do not know wether Mr Homberger acted on behalf of the company or on his
own or wether we can make that distinction at all. I also know that it was not
uncomon for the watchmaking companies to have subsidiary labels for major
brands.

There are may examples (Rolex/Tudor, Hamilton/Vantage, Bulova/Caravelle,
Rado/Exacto ,...). So my guess was that Intercontinental Watch was a subsidary
label for the IWC, and I was wondering wether IWC has any trace of that in
their records.

This is a very interesting find, although I have no idea what the significance
of this is.

Hans-Ernst Homberger played an important role outside IWC for the Swiss watch
industry although Schaffhausen was located outside the center of Swiss
horology. He was a member and ambassador of several Swiss horological
organisations

It could be interesting to write to the curator of the IWC museum, David
Seyffer. He might be able to find more data on this topic.

Regards,

Adrian,

(alwaysiwc).

Thank You very much,

Eduard

One more thing. The movement cannot be Unitas 150 or 160 as it has a diameter
27 or 28 mm, while Unitas 150 has a diameter of 10.5 lignes (23.3 mm)

I cannot figure out what it is. There is no stamp below the balance, just the
ICW sign on the bridge.