IWC in Kuwait: the saga continues…
Haute horlogerie marque IWC Schaffhausen and Kuwait have been enjoying a close relationship in recent years based on a mutual love for fine watchmaking. The Ingenieur Chronograph Edition Kuwait City is the next stage of this saga…. Mehdi Rajan, Wholesale Director, IWC Schaffhausen, chats with us on the side lines of the event
The Swiss watchmaker with its retail partner in Kuwait, Morad Yousuf Behbehani Group, marked the exciting introduction of the exclusive Ingenieur Chronograph Edition Kuwait City with an exclusive reception held at the IWC boutique at 360 Mall. The launch follows the success of the Portugieser Automatic Edition Kuwait and commemorates the longstanding partnership between IWC and the Behbehani Group, as well as the vibrant country’s passion for racing.
Ingenieur Chronograph Edition Kuwait City
Only 150 watches of this limited edition are available exclusively in Kuwait. It features the newly developed IWC-manufactured 69375 calibre, which promises precise and reliable timekeeping. The elegant timepiece has a brown calfskin strap and a warm, green dial with gold-plated hands, and a stainless-steel case. The chronograph with a column-wheel tachymeter scale has been calibrated to measure the average speed of an object over a distance of 1,000 metres. The design of this striking tribute to the golden age of classic motorsport takes its inspiration from the first Ingenieur from 1955.
“Day & Night” magazine caught up with Mehdi Rajan, who gave us insights on the brand’s presence in Kuwait, and the thought process that created the new Kuwait edition of the Ingenieur Chronograph
What brings you to Kuwait?
It is with great pleasure that we are back for the launch of our second special edition for Kuwait; last year, we launched IWC Portugieser Seven-Day Power Reserve Limited Edition for Kuwait. This year, we are proud to launch Ingenieur Chronograph Edition Kuwait City. It is limited to 150 pieces and exclusively sold in the Kuwait market.
When did you get the idea for a special edition?
The idea came about one day after the first special edition for Kuwait was launched. The Kuwaiti market is always striving for novelties, new ideas, and loves to engage with brands. After the success of the first edition, we were wondering on what we should do, and we discussed this with the Behbehani family. Everybody got involved – the family, sales staff of the Behbehani Group, and collectors. We wanted a product that would be a mix of our passion for craftsmanship, elegance, attention to detail, and excellence. We decided on the Ingenieur line, which is a mix of sports and elegance, has a new manufacture chronograph, but also has a very vintage look of the dial. We started developing that, and we used the same panatone green that we had used for our first Kuwait edition, which we now have ‘patented’ as the Kuwait colour.
Why the colour green again?
Green is highly regarded in the region; we call it a “deep green”, and it is the result of a long process and multiple discussions. This green is very hard to produce as our manufacture has to have the exact same green for every single watch and, due to the sun-ray effect on the dial, is very difficult to produce. That is one reason why we are delivering this watch in batches, and not in one go.
What do you attribute to the enormous success that IWC has achieved in the region, especially Kuwait?
It is due to many reasons. On a global level, the brand has grown strongly. At the regional level, it is because we have some very strong partners that helped develop the brand along with the very strong collections we have. Today we have six strong collections: the Portugieser, Pilot, and Portofino, which we call the Magic Three. We also have the Ingenieur – a prime example of which is here; the Da Vinci – which we re-launched last year; and the Aquatimer – targeted mostly at elegant gentlemen interested in sports. Our strong collection has also enabled us to grow our feminine market, which we entered a few years ago with the Portofino 37, and with the Da Vinci 36 in 2017.
How do your female customers see IWC, which is mostly a men’s watch brand?
IWC is neither a male or female brand; it is becoming a global brand, an institutional brand. Of course, most of our clients are male as most of our communications emphasised the masculinity of the brand as we were growing globally, but IWC has been manufacturing watches for ladies since the 1930s. We have always had this heritage expertise; we just took that and rejuvenated it with the collections we have today.
We are less familiar with our female clientele, but many women have been buying and wearing our masculine watches mainly because women who like haute horlogerie did not have many choices; my wife often wears my watches! When we brought out our ladies watch, we realised that our male customers were buying it for their wives. We now have more variety in our collections with the Da Vinci, the Portofino and a few watches in the Pilot 36 as well; women now enter our boutiques and enquire about our watches. The awareness of watchmaking among the female community is growing tremendously; a few weeks ago we had a private event for VIP ladies around our feminine watches and it was a huge success.
The reason that our brand has grown so well regionally is not only because we grew globally but also because of our ambassadors is in each country. The Behbehani family is one of the main reasons that our brand is so successful here.
Why is IWC brand so successful with its Pilot watches?
It is because like all of our collections, the Pilot watches are genuine. When we first came out with our Pilot watches in 1936, they fulfilled a specific need – we made watches that can be manipulated wearing gloves, are protected against magnetic fields, etc. There was a technical need from the market and IWC manufactured watches for a specific purpose. When we started making watches for the public, we had that expertise to draw upon.
Can you tell us how the idea for the new Pallweber watch for your 150th anniversary collection came about?
The Pallweber edition is a brilliant watch and something we are very proud of. In the beginning for our brand, we were selling technology that Pallweber invented; he joined the IWC team to design a specific edition for us. It was a question of aesthetics and function at that time to show something different; that was the essence of the Pallweber pocket watch in 1884. We decided to substitute 12 layers of lacquer instead of the enamel used in the original pocket watches. The IWC Tribute to Pallweber Edition “150 Years” has one pocket watch limited to 50 pieces, the platinum watch limited to 25 pieces, in gold to 150, and in steel with blue dial limited to 500.
Why the focus on blue and white dials for the limited editions?
To resemble the enamelling as a tribute to our heritage and legacy in our watchmaking. We wanted to present exclusive watches for our more discerning customers in very limited editions with numbering.
