Boussoles à la page Au cœur du Manufakturzentrum, salles de stockage des matériaux et salles d’usinage coexistent sur un même étage, dans une atmosphère de laboratoire. The storage spaces and machine shop, with their white lab atmosphere, coexist on the same floor in the Manufakturzentrum. Thearchitectsoftime Leading watchmaking companies draw inspiration from the rigor of contemporary architecture. IWC has taken things a step further by turning its new workshops into a luminous metaphor for the label and its technological expertise. If Christoph Grainger-Herr were part of Manufakturzentrum. It is designed to approach the building, they are, as a watch, he’d be the second hand. In the reflect the rationalization of the watch- Grainger-Herr puts it, “struck by a sense space of just a few years, this German making production process. Here, the pre- of elevation.” They climb a flight of steps architect, who trained in the UK and Swit- cision of watchmaking meets the precision and pass through a portico with the feel of zerland, went from designing shops to of architecture. As a student, Grainger- a temple. Here, the object of worship is being appointed chief executive of watch- Herr was deeply impressed by the Barce- time and the mechanical perfection of maker IWC. Two buildings embody his lona Pavilion, designed by Mies van der “grand complications.” “A sense of adven- career perfectly. The first is a museum on Rohe for the 1929 World’s Fair, and made ture is part of IWC’s DNA,” says its CEO. the ground floor of the firm’s original head drawings of it from every possible angle. “We’re neither futuristic nor retro, so we office, in the medieval center of the small The influence of this iconic structure is wanted neither a deconstructed building Swiss town of Schaffhausen. The second plain for all to see in IWC’s new factory. It nor a pastiche, but rather architecture that is IWC’s current headquarters, now is a sharp-edged, light-drenched parallel- looks to the future, that is classical yet located amid fields seven kilometers away. epiped, reminiscent of an art museum. innovative.” The factory’s pure elegance These new premises, which opened in Following the lay of the land, it is raised speaks intrinsically of IWC’s watchmak- August to mark the watchmaker’s up on a platform revealing a main story ing visions: the Aviateur, Portugieser and 150th anniversary, were designed in part with floor-to-ceiling glazing. An upper Da Vinci designs are all imbued with this by its own CEO, who was personally level houses a restaurant overlooking pioneering spirit. And have been every sec- responsible for the building known as the the surrounding mountains. When visitors ond of the day for the past 150 years. 110 CWI©