bernard cheong
7182
The Legendary Kurt Klaus of IWC
I had a difficult choice to post this on the AHCI, but the Watchrap forum seemed less appropriate for another living legend, that continues with the posts on Dufour and Halter.
I have been and still am a hard core IWC fan since 1993 or thereabouts since my first entry level Portofino.
Dr Kurt Klaus has been a watchmaker and a true genius,here in some rare pictures, one can instantly recognise the "Einstein" shrug of the shoulders...
1985, the legendary man developed a perpetual calendar, alone with no technical team, no CAD, no computers, completing the unique and fantastic design as a single control axis thru the crown, mounted on top of a 7750 as instructed by Gunther Blumlein.
It took 4 years working alone. Cutting the wheels by hand....finishing the first 3 Da Vincis in an early 5am April morning...1985. It was the MOST accurate moonphase calendar of its time.
Myself, not being a proffessional journalist, but a meer collector, was too much in awe of the man to ask him anything during except to exchange casual banter about old friends, and some memories of IWC.
Note the callused finger tips classic of great watchmakers that have been doing plenty of handwork...made me wonder what Dr Klaus has been working on recently.
Having been a watchmaker for over 44years, Dr Klaus is fully familiar with both the old tools we love so much , as well as the super incredible and complex CNC machines here that are cutting the cases of the titanium IWCs.
A tourbillon of the cal 5000 class movement.
The incredibly complex internal surface structure of the barrel of a cal 5000 type movement that holds the long powerband of the mainspring!
Kurt Klaus is a living legend...a true watchmaker, as pure as any can come by...before the time of the AHCI.
Personally, I have to place him here in the AHCI's hall of fame with Dufour and Halter, because of his individual contributions to watchmaking, single handedly in the eighties, building the first 3 Da Vinci's by hand and by sheer mental juggling of numbers and a handheld calculator! Creating IMHO the most elegant and practical perpetual calendar module in the industry.
He has been around for so much longer than the rest, and just so many treasures of history, all held in his mind.
Just spending a day with him made me realise he has seen SO MANY watchmakers come and go...the sheer time he has spent both as a watchmaker in the purest sense, and as a technical director of some incredible modern day projects that we see today from IWC.
For those who are not IWC fans, may I recomend a close look at the legacy of the Da Vinci Perpetual, a module on a 7750, incredibly elegant in simplicity of execution yet incredibly complex in contemplation.
The Da Vinci Perpetual is THE perpetual to have and to use....engineering at its best!
