2012 was IWC’s year of their Pilot’s watch. The introduction party of the new Pilot collection during the SIHH in Geneva last year has been topic of several discussions. Whether it was positive or not, at least IWC got everyone’s attention for the Pilot collection. Here in The Netherlands, we had our own introduction day of the new IWC (TOP Gun) Pilot collection. A report of that day can be found by clicking here.
Before I started working for IWC, I’ve been active for a lot of different industries. I almost had seen every type of product except cars and cheap swiss replica watches. It was actually by coincidence that I ended up in the watch industry. What struck me most – besides the watches – is that at the basis of these products is a company with a long history which does everything by themselves from design to the actual production process of the watch. That’s very special in this era. However, my team and I do more than watches only. We have a team of 12 designers in Schaffhausen and 5 of them are constantly working on watches. Other members of the team work on our IWC boutiques, packaging, gifts and basically every visual aspect of IWC. However, the watches are our center point of attention.
Compared to the products I’ve work with before, watches are certainly the most emotional products. It’s just wonderful how involved our customers are with our products. Everytime I talk to IWC collectors, IWC fans or to the people who visit our museum in Schaffhausen I am amazed how emotional they get about our brand. It really fascinates me and gives me a lot of input in my work. It shows that it is more than ‘just a watch’ to people, some people live for watches. I live for watches replica.
On to the watches. The Pilot collection has been IWC’s focus in 2012. Let’s start with the new Pilot Father & Son watches that were introduced in 2012. The Big Pilot (Father’s watch) is an iconic watch already and has its own group of followers. Wasn’t it hard to change certain things about this watch, such as the black dial?
For the Father & Son Pilot collection, we decided to use different colors for the dial and Super Luminova. We also decided to produce both models in stainless steel (as opposed to the platinum & steel set from the previous collection), as we’ve learned that this combination should become affordable for more customers.
How about the classics? The Mark XVII and the Flieger Chrono?
Both models have been redesigned in 2012. We changed the dimensions and proportions a bit and enriched the watch with more details. These best cheap copy watches have grown-up a bit due to these changes. We also offer a wonderful new stainless steel bracelet for these watches with high quality finish and micro adjustment. The classic Pilot watches turned into a very refined product.
To what extent do you listen to your customers or IWC collectors?
It is very important to listen carefully about the comments that are being made. Are they related to a personal opinion, like “I don’t like the color” or “that replica watch is too large or too small for my wrist”, or is it a comment that can be very relevant for us. For instance, when I go on-line to visit watch blogs and see there’s an opinion about the character of a swiss fake watch in relation to our brand name, then this can be certainly inspiring to me. Especially when I see that more people are sharing this opinion.