The "International Watch Co." was founded in Schaffhausen in 1868 by an American engineer from Boston, Florentine Ariosto Jones. The factory on the River Rhine - far from the watchmaking centres of western Switzerland - owes its name and its existence to this American. The superb craftsmanship, the training of its specialists, the renunciation of mass-production: all of these correspond to the old-established principles of IWC, to make watches in small numbers, but of the highest quality.