Congrats to IWC who have won Factory of The Year Award, here’s the press info;

IWC Schaffhausen has won the GEO Award in its first-ever entry into the industry competition “Factory of the Year”. The prize is one of the most desirable awards for European companies and attests to the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer’s outstanding operational excellence across the entire value-added chain. But the strong performances of IWC in the areas of quality and sustainability have also been recognised by the jurors.

Perfect quality can only be achieved by excellence on all levels: The very highest performance is required in innovation, development and design, but above all in terms of various production processes, so that every individual timepiece from IWC fulfils the strictest requirements for quality, reliability and long service life. In 2018, IWC consolidated the production of movement parts, movement assembly and case-making in a new Manufacturing Center. Now the transparently structured watchmaking company, in which IWC combines traditional craftsmanship with the latest production methods and technologies, has been awarded with the GEO Award (Global Excellence in Operations) at the industry competition “Factory of the Year”.

Does it matter how sustainable watch production is? Of course, because we now live in a world where activists are running campaigns against capitalism, against the ownership of ANY possessions. Seriously, just Google it. So IWC using 100% renewable electricity, or Swatch opening a HQ made largely from sustainable wood really does matter. The consumption of resources is going to be used as a stick to beat companies with during the 2020s, by politicians of all persuasions – it’s an easy bandwagon to jump on.

So well done IWC, now let’s see Bremont and other British watch brands celebrate the benefits of UK based production. It matters.