IWC Da Vinci Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month (IW3761-01)

Introduced in 2005 as a pioneering project within the East building, the use of heat pumps and groundwater for heating and cooling lies at the core of endeavours for a positive energy balance. As the new West building enters service, this innovative system has now been extended with three more heat pumps to meet its energy requirements. For creating the building's interior environment, this pumping system can produce 6 °C cooling or 58 °C heating supplied separately or in tandem.
In addition, IWC extracts heat from the city's sewer system using a 60-metre long heat exchanger, thus obtaining additional energy for heating and cooling purposes. Furthermore, groundwater pumped from two well shafts and fed to indoor chilled beams for cooling plays a major role in the overall system. Use of these innovative technologies massively reduces the need for fossil fuels.
Cladding the building is a triple-glazed skin; its high insulation factor is a significant help in reducing energy requirements. Rainwater collected from the roof of the new West building goes to flush toilets, another measure that is in keeping with IWC's policy of active climate protection.

Thanks to IWC's trailblazing practices with renewable energy resources, CO2 emissions from production facilities could be halved even before the West wing was occupied. The new building will be of major help in further improving this balance, and it underlines the company's drive to actively contribute towards climate protection.
"We have economic, social and environmental responsibilities", asserted CEO Georges Kern.
This commitment, revealed not only in sustainable construction practices but also in employee programmes, is continually adjusted and kept up-to-date. Each year, the company provides a budget of 250,000 Swiss francs for employee initiatives to reduce the environmental burden. For example, IWC offers financial support for ecological measures in private building-conversion projects of their staff.
CO2 emissions accruing from deliveries, business travel and events are subject to constant review and reduction. In case that proves infeasible, IWC makes good on the shortfall by financial means - compensation contributions from the Schaffhausen company are helping to promote a wind-energy project in China.
Such addressing of environmental issues earned IWC certification as a CO2-neutral company in summer 2007. Looking ahead, modernisation of its premises alone will enable IWC to achieve a 90 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2010.

Innovative and ecologically sound

Active climate protection and environmental responsibility are mainstays of the company philosophy at IWC Schaffhausen, just as much as the b presence of its watches.
This longstanding business has put prolonged effort into improving its environmental track record, which led to certification as a CO2-neutral company last year. In its new West building, IWC likewise uses the latest technologies to reduce CO2 emissions:
• Eco-friendly heat pumps for heating and cooling
• Chilled beams fed by groundwater
• Use of heat from wastewater in Schaffhausen's sewer system
• Use of rainwater
• Heat recovery from exhaust air
• Use of "Clean Solution" hydroelectricity
• State-of-the art slat blinds to shade the building façade from the sun's rays
• Triple-skinned glass façade with a high insulation factor

Symbolic architecture
 
As with the East wing, Schaffhausen architects Hofer and Kick have chosen a contemporary, international language of form and materials for the new West building. Its four storeys symmetrically complement the manufactory's East wing and together they extend out to the Rhine, framing the main building erected by Florentine Ariosto Jones, the company's founder. "The West building was conceived as being formally analogous to the existing East wing", wrote the architects in their construction report, "while rigorously refining the high technical standards already in place."

The glass façades create expansive, high-ceilinged workspaces, suffused with light. The open plan structure encourages interaction among employees. Generous dimensions in the indoor lounge areas and an open-air terrace between the old and new building bear witness to a contemporary, communicative corporate culture. Says CEO Georges Kern, "A company's building architecture does more than radiate an outward statement, it also affects employees' sense of well-being and motivation."
The company's status as a producer of luxury goods with understated cachet is also apparent in the choice of materials for the new West building. Glazed concrete symbolises architectural coolness, high-grade wooden floors signify consummate Swissness, while the application of glass and metal promotes an unassumingly elegant yet self-assured reverence for Schaffhausen's tradition as a long-established industrial centre.
At those moments when the watchmakers' manufactory becomes bathed in the reflected flicker of sunlight playing on the waters of the Rhine, it is possible to experience the romance that during the 19th Century transformed this craft into a coveted occupation. In this respect, the new West building stands as an architectural icon of a renaissance in the art of watchmaking.

Looking ahead
The concentration of all production at the Schaffhausen site is one of the most commercially and ecologically sound recipes for success in this prospering watchmaking manufactory. Throughout the years of steady construction activity, IWC has given shape to ambitious plans for expanding its premises. In 2005, the East building opened as a modern production facility that set standards for sustainability and harmonious integration with the urban landscape. In the second phase, IWC remodelled its watch museum. Since 2007, mechanical watches past and present have found a stylish home in a contemporary lounge setting within the main manufactory building. The adjoining IWC boutique, opened concurrently with the museum, has developed into a further magnet for visitors. With the new West building completed, one of the most innovative building systems around today is now in operation. The ecological measures implemented in its construction translate into a considerable reduction in CO2 emissions from the premises.