The era of Kurt Klaus
There are many people in the Swiss watch industry who are considered to be great designers. However, when you consider the variety of movements he worked on and the extent of his influence on the industry as a whole, there is still no designer who can match Kurt Klaus. Having studied under the legendary designer Albert Pellaton, he eventually carved out his own unique world and passed it on to his successors. We would like to look back on the "era" of Kurt Klaus through lengthy interviews with him and those around him.
Interview and text by Masayuki Hirota
"I learned a lot as an apprentice to Albert Pellaton. He was only interested in the highest quality." - Kurt Klaus
As an assistant, I learned a lot from Mr.Pellaton.
- Kurt Klaus
"Without Kurt Klaus, IWC would not exist as it is today," said David Seyfer, curator of the IWC Museum. However, in my view, his contributions go far beyond that.
Kurt Klaus began his career designing modules for pocket watches, then moved on to improving ébauches, and later on he created perpetual calendars, long-power-reserve automatic movements, and finally tourbillons.
There are many multi-talented designers like Carole Forestier-Cazapi of Cartier, Julio Papy of AP Renaud & Papy, and François-Paul Journe, but when it comes to the extent of his influence on the watch industry, the watchmaker Kurt Klaus ranks even higher.
He was the mastermind behind the evolution of the ETA2892 into the ETA2892-A2, the mentor who taught Giulio Papi how to make watches, and the innovative designer who revolutionized the concept of modular watches. He was also a mentor, so to speak, who passed on the ideas of his predecessor, Albert Pellaton, to IWC during the decline of mechanical watches. However, even when speaking with Klaus himself, he doesn't seem like the kind of designer who achieved such great accomplishments. So what transformed him from "Pellaton's apprentice" to "great designer"?
"After graduating from the watchmaking school in Solothun, I started working at IWC straight away. There, I learned a lot as an apprentice to Albert Pellaton. Pellaton was only interested in the highest quality, because he believed that watches should last 50 or 100 years. There's a story that Pellaton often visited the production site. He watched closely the process of polishing the tenons, and he pressured them to reduce the gap to 0.002 mm, saying that 0.00 mm was not good enough."
"It's not difficult to make a watch by hand, but if it can't be produced industrially, it's just a toy." - Kurt Klaus
It's not difficult to make a complicated movement
entirely by hand. However, it would
- Kurt Klaus
After Pellaton's departure, IWC began developing a new slim automatic movement, the Caliber 100. Klaus was involved in assembling the prototype, but it wouldn't work, so Pellaton, who had retired, was quickly called back.
"I think they made about 100 units of the Caliber 100 (Seyfer says they made 15 to 20). The quality was good, but as soon as Pellaton saw the movement he said, 'This is too thin. It shouldn't be made.' Engineers working on movements should also have the qualities of a watchmaker. If they had done so, they would have been able to spot the flaws in the prototype before it was even assembled."
It was around this time that Kurt Klaus learned about Pellaton's ideas. Like Pellaton, he was skeptical of thin movements and insisted that the designers be watchmakers. Since then, IWC has continued to use movements as thick as possible, and most of its designers have come from watchmakers' backgrounds.
"What's important is the experience you have had as a watchmaker, working with a variety of machines. A good example is Stefan Ihnen, who is currently in charge of movement development. He was an excellent watchmaker, which is why he became my successor."
IWC's business continued to grow from the late 1960s through the 70s. However, in 74, the company's operations began to decline rapidly. This was due to the US ending its fixed exchange rate system against the dollar, which led to a sharp rise in the value of the Swiss franc. The Swiss watch industry, which relied on exports, had already been hit hard even before the spread of quartz movements.
"In those days, you could only work four days a week. I had my own workshop in Schaffhausen, so I was allowed to work there. In my spare time, I came up with the idea of putting a moon phase module in a pocket watch. I drew a simple sketch in pencil, cut the plate and other components on a sawing machine, and created a prototype movement."
He showed the completed movement to Hannes Pantli, who was the sales manager at the time. He said, "It's crazy, but it's a great job. Can you make 100 of these?" This moon phase movement was a turning point for IWC, which was struggling in the late 70s and was trying to transition to specializing in pocket watches. However, when Klaus next created a pocket watch with a calendar, Pantli said to him, "Next, I want you to make a wristwatch. And it has to have a perpetual calendar."
According to Klaus, he began designing perpetual calendars in 80.
"I learned about the mechanism of a perpetual calendar by reading books and looking at old pocket watches. But I didn't want to simply make one; I wanted to create something that had never been made before. I thought not about what I wanted to make, but about what I didn't want to make."
Thus began the humble beginnings of the "Da Vinci" project that would eventually bring fame to IWC and Kurt Klaus.
"We conducted market research before developing the watch. Perpetual calendars already existed (Audemars Piguet introduced an ultra-thin perpetual calendar in 78), but there were no perpetual calendar chronographs at the time."
Klaus says he did not want to create something as complicated and difficult to use as existing perpetual calendars. He wanted the new perpetual calendar to be simple. He eventually came up with the idea of operating all the calendars with the rotation of the date ring that controls the date display. The company's CEO at the time was Günter Blümlein, who had previously worked at the instrument manufacturer VDO. He presented Klaus with the following condition: "You can make it however you like, but you have to use an existing movement."
"There was no other choice for the base movement than the Valjoux 7750. It had a date display and, moreover, the date change was slow, so I thought it could be used as a power source. We also considered using the Jaeger-LeCoultre 888/889, which IWC was using at the time, as a base. However, the date change was too sudden and it could not be used to power a perpetual calendar."
By using the date ring as its power source instead of a date wheel, this new perpetual calendar could be fast-forwarded simply by pulling the crown out one notch and turning it. Also, because the power source was the date ring, it was possible to incorporate a perpetual calendar into a quartz movement, as long as it had a date display.
"We even considered using quartz to power it, so we made the resistance of the module very low."
As is already known, Da Vinci did not use a computer to design the moon phase display, which only has an error of one day every 122 years. He calculated the movement to five decimal points by reading a book called "Logarithmemen Tableelle." The first drawing was completed on July 19, 1983, three years after the project began.
"The important thing was that it was robust and easy to use, but even more importantly, it had to be able to be produced on an industrial scale. It's not difficult to make a perpetual calendar or a tourbillon by hand, but that's just a toy. The important thing was that it could be mass-produced, and the aim with the Da Vinci was to make it all machine-made."
There is a reason why he emphasized that "handwork is not difficult." After completing the drawings in 83, he produced the subsequent prototypes all by himself. He laughs wryly, saying that he was the only one at the time, but it is not a job that an ordinary watchmaker could have done. In any case, the Da Vinci, an entirely new perpetual calendar, was a huge hit. Moreover, its excellent productivity led to the company succeeding in producing such a large number of units that one Swiss watchmaker said, "In the year of its release alone, we produced more perpetual calendars than were currently on the market."
