[1] Originally founded in Switzerland by American watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones in 1868, the company was transferred to the Rauschenbach family in 1880 after bankruptcy and has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group since 2000.

[5][6][4][7] In 2018 IWC was recognized by the WWF for its environmental efforts and received an "Ambitious" rating; placing first amongst fifteen other Swiss watchmakers.

In 1868, American engineer and watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones (1841–1916),[8] who had been a director of E. Howard & Co., in Boston founded the International Watch Company.

[10] At the time, wages in Switzerland were relatively low although there was a ready supply of skilled watchmaking labor,[9] mainly carried out by people in their homes.

At this stage, watch manufacturer and industrialist Heinrich Moser built Schaffhausen's first hydroelectric plant and aided in further industrialization.

[citation needed] However, F.A Jones had trouble selling the watches in America due to tariffs, financing, and technical machine problems.

[10] One of IWC's stockholders, Johann Rauschenbach-Vogel,[10] Chief Executive Officer and a machine manufacturer from Schaffhausen, took over the Internationale Uhrenfabrik on 17 February 1880.

His son, Johannes Rauschenbach-Schenk, aged 25, took over the Uhrenfabrik von J. Rauschenbach and ran it successfully until his own death on 2 March 1905.

AUrs Haenggi from Nunningen in the canton of Solothurn had gotten to know the watch business in French-speaking Switzerland and France; in 1883 he joined IWC and stayed with the company for 52 years.

[13] Following the death of his father-in-law, Ernst Jakob Homberger had a considerable influence on the Schaffhausen watchmaking company's affairs and guided it through one of the most turbulent epochs in Europe's history.

Just before the world economic crisis, he took over as sole proprietor and renamed the company Uhrenfabrik von Ernst Homberger-Rauschenbach, formerly International Watch Co. His contribution was honoured in 1952, when he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of St. Gallen.

From the second half of the thirties to the end of World War II, IWC was one of five watch manufacturers (the others being Stowa, Laco, Wempe and A. Lange & Söhne) that built B-Uhren for Germany's air force (Luftwaffe).

The flames from incendiaries exploding nearby penetrated the building through the broken windows but were extinguished by the company's own fire brigade.

The era saw the first use of miniaturized electric batteries as a source of energy for wristwatches and some eventually unsuccessful technologies, such as the electronically controlled balance.

The Uhrenfabrik H. E. Homberger co-founded and was a shareholder in the Centre Électronique Horloger (CEH) in Neuchâtel and was financially involved in the development of the Beta 21 quartz wristwatch movement, which was first presented to the public at the 1969 Industrial Fair in Basel and used by other manufactures such as the Omega Electroquartz watches.

In order to survive, IWC, under the leadership of Director and CEO Otto Heller, built up a line of pocket watches, and, apart from setting up its own modern wristwatch and case manufacturing facilities, began working closely with Ferdinand A. Porsche as an external designer.

With the help of the Swiss Bank Corporation, the company was put in contact with VDO Adolf Schindling AG, which took a majority interest in IWC in 1978.

The new director, Günter Blümlein, pushed for rapid implementation of planned changes, put the existing advertising campaign to work, built up the customer base and solidified IWC's finances.

[16] The IWC ref.3770 launched in 1990 was the first wristwatch-sized Grande Complication that housed a Chronograph, a Minute Repeater and a Perpetual Calendar functions.

This newly engineered automatic models follow the bold aesthetic codes of Gérald Genta's Ingenieur from the 1970s while meeting the highest standards regarding ergonomics, finishing, and technology.

[23] The company claims that its service department has the parts and is capable of repairing and maintaining watches from every era since IWC's foundation in 1868.

In December 2018, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released an official report giving environmental ratings for 15 major watch manufacturers and jewelers in Switzerland.

[33][35] In jewelry and watchmaking industry, there are general concerns over the lack of transparency in manufacturing activities and the sourcing of precious raw materials such as gold, which is a major cause of environmental issues such as pollution, soil degradation and deforestation.

[36] Since 1997, IWC has been offering a horological item for online auction annually on its website, donating proceeds to the Ecole des Sables – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry school in Mali.

In 2007, the Company auctioned a platinum version of the Pilot's Watch Automatic Edition Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Reference 3201.

It was auctioned together with an original copy of Exupéry's debut novel, Courrier Sud (Southern Mail), featuring a handwritten dedication by the author.