THE FIRST OF 25...........

..... The Winterthur watch was limited to 100 pieces. This one is no. 48. It was one of 4 modern Schützenuhren, together with Lucerne ( 1979), Chur (1985) and Thun(1995).
Here you can see its original white box made of a strange material that crumbles after many years exposure to light....

..... The city of Winterthur is much alike Schaffhausen. It has about 105.000 inhabitants. It is located only 29 km from Schaffhausen in the canton Zürich.
The 1990 Schützenfest was a 3-day festival with 3000 competitors. It was part of a national competition that lasted for 17 days and the total number of shooters was 77.731. If you google "Winterthur", you will find no extraordinary things, except one. Albert Einstein, just graduated from the University, was a teacher in mathematics in Winterthur. And more amazingly, he was a teacher too in Schaffhausen !
Now you will understand why in Schaffhausen so much intellect is concentrated and why a famous watch maker (K.K.) is called the "Einstein" of Schaffhausen...
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

Great

I have never seen one of the 100 gold or the 100 Sterling 1990 Winterthur Hunter Watches.

Very Very nice. Contratulation.

Ralph

Thanks Ralph,
Just a detail about the cal. 982 movement. The normal version was gilded and had Geneva stripes : "Cotes de Genève".
The watch depicted here is one with Geneva Stripes. However, customers could also order the watch with a beautifully hand engraved movement, as shown in my first image in this thread. The fact that such watches were limited ( in this case to 100 pieces) does not mean that IWC completed the series of 100 watches.
These special watches were made on demand, and it my well be that the series was not completed..., making it awfully rare.
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

Ralph,
About the numbers made : according to my information, data and brochures : 100 watches were made in gold and 200 in Sterling silver. The hand engraved movement costed 3300 Swiss Francs extra. The Winterthur Schützenuhren built by IWC were also tested to a higher degree of accuracy compared to watches from the "normal" production line. Although not being a chronometer, these pieces were adjusted in such way that the inaccuracy was less than 3 seconds per day.
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

Very interesting , the decoration of the movement was an addition "option", I now read more precisely the booklet. For the numbers produce I agree, they probably built just a few of the "in the booklet indicated" 2x 100. Was there no open face version (maybe the last 100)?

Hi Ralph,
There were Lepines and Savonettes, both in silver and gold. But IWC did not mention how much of each. And as you said, a limited edition did not mean that the limited series was completely made. The final production was adjusted to the ultimate need of the market. As you know the list of documented watch movements, published by Toelke and King and also on this Forum, ends in 1974.
That is now 39 years ago. Since than, IWC produced for sure, more watches than during the era of 1868-1974. Unfortunately we do not know about production numbers after 1974. It would be great to have insight in this "modern" period.
Maybe once, these data will be published. As a matter of fact we now have a young enthousiastic museum curator : David Seyffer !
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

...and an appropriate quote from the same :
"Wenn ich die Folgen geahnt hätte, wäre ich Uhrmacher geworden." - Albert Einstein

For those not familiar with German:
If I had known the consequences, I would have become a watchmaker!"

;-)

Regards

Jimmy

One of the 4 " modern" Schützenuhren is the watch for the city of Chur.
Chur is located in South-East Switzerland not far from Liechtenstein and the city of Davos. Chur likes to name itself as "Alpenstadt" ( the city of the Alps). It has about 100.000 inhabitants.

.....Chur organised " 3 times a Schützenfest in : 1842, 1949 and 1985.
The golden Savonette made by IWC for the 1985 event is shown here from the brochure. Lepine watches were also made

....The watch shown in the brochure is ref. 5430. Two hundred pieces should have been made. I own No. 73/200. The movement in it, is cal. 982, the very last improved top end product movement made by IWC....
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

Once again thanks Adrian and all, for the continuation of this interesting thread!

The interest in Schützenuhren is apperently fainting now.
I guess it is now the moment to stop with this thread.
For those collectors who are interested, please search the archives.
Many thanks for your responses!
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

Hi Adrian,
Michael is correct, number of views is a more sigificant measure of interest than the number of replies. Please keep at it.

Our moderator, my watch friends Clepsydra (Antonio) and Hebe ( Heiko), convinced me to continue this thread. Although the number of responses has declined, the number of visits seems still ok.
Here we go, by referring to the Schützenuhr of Rohrschach made by IWC, exactly 101 years ago.....
This poster, announces the Schützenfest in Rohrschach, Switzerland..

.....From 8-12 June 1912, the St Gallische Kantonal Schützenfest in Rohrschach was organised. Rohrschach is located in the Canton of St Gallen, 95 km. South East of Schaffhausen at the South border of the Boden Lake.
For the city a major event, complete with a parade that reminds me of the classic parades in New York, but here without confetti....

Here is the silver watch of Rohrschach , 1912.
Of course again Wilhelm Tell is depicted here, with a typical " hunting hat".
The Rohrschach watch was equipped with cal. 52...