“Please… draw me a sheep!” This somewhat strange request is the beginning of the acquaintance with the little prince in the bestseller of the same name with the French original title “Le Petit Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. But what does a children’s book have to do with the (historically exciting) classic pilot’s watch, the IWC Replica Pilot’s Watch Chronograph? We’ll look at that (along with the qualitative aspects, of course) in this detailed test…

IWC Schaffhausen and the path to the Pilot Watch Chronograph

International Watch Company, or IWC* for short, is not exactly a typical name for a Swiss watch manufacturer. However, it was no coincidence that the American engineer Florentine Ariosto Jones from Boston ended up in Schaffhausen (which had previously been a virgin watchmaker) in 1868 to found his company: Swiss pocket watches were becoming increasingly popular in Jones’ home country, but the prices were still comparatively high.

We remember: The industrial revolution began relatively late in the USA, but from 1850 and especially after the Civil War in 1865, the USA’s industrialization efforts picked up speed. Against this background, Jones found good conditions in Schaffhausen to contribute his knowledge of industrialization and to use the water power of the Rhine Falls to drive modern production machines.

Within a very short time, Jones was able to bring his own hand-wound caliber for pocket watches onto the market. Around 25,000 IWC pocket watches were produced under Jones’ aegis, but it is estimated that only around 500 of them still exist worldwide today. They are therefore highly sought after among vintage collectors.