Swiss stainless steel open faced keyless lever watch Circa 1980

Stainless steel pocket watch by International Watch Co
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A Swiss stainless steel open faced keyless lever pocket watch, circa 1980. Rhodium-plated movement, Geneva Striping decoration, 19 jewels, straight line lever escapement, monometallic balance adjusted to five positions, shock absorber, self-compensating blued steel Breguet balance spring, micrometre regulator. White enamel dial with Roman hours, outer minute divisions, guilloché subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock and black Breguet hands. Brushed case. Dial signed, case and movement signed and numbered. Comes with a long silver chain.
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Diameter: 48 mm
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Signed: International Watch Co Schaffhausen Swiss
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International Watch Company Schaffhausen (IWC) was founded in 1868 by Florentine Ariosto Jones (1841–1916), an American engineer and watchmaker from Boston, Massachusetts, who had been a director of E. Howard & Co, Boston, America’s leading watchmaking company at the time. He established the company with the intention of combining modern engineering technology from the U.S. with the craftsmanship of the Swiss to manufacture high-quality watches exclusively for the American market. Then, wages in Switzerland were relatively low although there was a ready supply of skilled watchmaking labour mainly carried out by people in their homes. Jones encountered opposition to his plans in French-speaking Switzerland. People feared for their jobs and the work they did at home because he wanted to open a factory. In 1850 the town of Schaffhausen was in danger of being left behind in the Industrial Age. At this stage, watch manufacturer and industrialist Johann Heinrich Moser built Schaffhausen’s first hydroelectric plant and laid the cornerstone for future industrialization. He probably met Jones in Le Locle and showed great interest in his plans. Together, they laid the foundations for the only watch manufacturer in north east Switzerland: the International Watch Company in Schaffhausen.