[jdp87]

Does anyone know what the story behind he relationship between IWC and Jaeger is? A lot of the horological literature I read references IWC and JLC as sister companies, but it never goes into detail as to the nature of the relationship. Does anyone know anything about this so called sisterhood? Or is it as plain and boring as both being owned by the notorious richemont group?

Best regards

-jdp87

 

[Scott D]

Hey jdp,

I do believe there was some partnering between IWC & Jaeger back in the earlier days (though to what extent I don't know - but I do seem to remember something), but today I believe the only sisterhood is both being Richemont comapnies....

One of the other guys may have more definitive info.. I'll be curious to see to what extent (if any)....

 

[timefinder]

This is news to me. I do not even recall a mention of them on the IWC site either.

 

[boscoe]

I'm not aware of a relationship between the two.

 

[wbarker]

Point of clarity (to my limited knowledge)

For many years most of IWC's movements were in house, but then in the 80's IWC began using ebauches from ETA, a Swatch Group sub, and some from JLC and F. Piguet both of which were highly modified by IWC. IWC continues to utilize ETA movements even today, but the trend is clearly to more and more in house movements: Ingenieur, Portuguese and the new DaVinci's.

Bill

 

[timefinder]

Bill:

When will IWC go all in house? Isn't ETA restricting movements to its own company in a few years?

 

[wbarker]

@timefinder,

I heard George Kern, President of IWC, say he is not concerned about the supply situation from ETA. They probably have many ebauches on order and will be protected as much as they wish to be. Obviously, the new DaVinci Chono movement provides lots of options for moving away from the ETA chronos, but I have no inside info on what they will or intend to do in the future.

Bill

 

[Slife]

In 1991 IWC director Günter Blümlein founded the LMH Group with its headquarters in Schaffhausen. With a 100% stake in IWC, 60% in Jaeger-LeCoultre and 90% in the Saxony-based watchmaking company of A. Lange & Söhne, the Group employed some 1440 persons.

In July 2000, LMH was acquired by Richemont, a Zug-based luxury goods group, for CHF 2.8 bn. Despite the takeover by Richemont, IWC was guaranteed that it would continue to be managed by the same executives from the LMH Group.

It is not really a patnership, but I think this is what Scott was refering too.

 

[jdp87]

I have this suspicion that the relationship is older than some may suspect, I have many “older” watch books that make reference to this so called “sisterhood”, but the extent is unclear

 

[Scott D]

JLC did supply the movements to IWC (as well as others including Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet, and Patek Phillipe) early in IWC's history, up until sometime in the early - mid 1900's. Though I don't know what exact year IWC moved away from JLC movements.

The sisterhood may refer to a close working partnership between the two companies for their movements. Maybe there was other materials JLC provided IWC as well. Though I'm speculating, I'd imagine a partnership of 2 companies (where the owners were involved in the day to day operation instead of a board or people hired by the stockholders) was a much more personal & honorable partnership then today when it's more about what will it do for my company, I don't really care about yours. Business was just different then.