Horological Meandering

SJX
[Purist]
8540

• Show profile
• Show other posts

Some more thoughts

Thanks for the response Jack, I always enjoy your posts.

What I have been led to believe in conversations with industry folk is that ceramic is nowhere near as expensive today as it was when IWC first made the Da Vinci and Fliegerchronograph in ceramic in the late 80s and early 90s. Some even admittedly that the primary, but not the only, reason for ceramic is that it is perfect for the tastes of the market now and it is still seen as an exotic material. Indeed ceramic does offer benefits including higher scratch resistance but majority of customers buy it for the look and idea rather than its physical properties.

In fact, in a conversation I had with Kurt Klaus last year he candidly noted that the current IWC ceramic cases are far easier and cheaper to produce than before; the old ceramic cases of the 90s were a technical challenge and a great achievement but the modern technology has made ceramic much more accessible.

He cited the example of the logo on the side of the Top Gun watches, that would never have been possible/practical a decade ago. He did not however, cite IWC's profit margin on ceramic watches but I personally believe it is reasonably lucrative, more so than for comparable steel models, for example Top Gun Doppelchronograph vs. Spitfire Doppel.

- SJX