Elite Traveler November-December 2018

elite traveler NOV/DEC 2018 71

“You don't fall in love with the numbers, or the efficiency. You fall in love with something that speaks to you, and speaks to your heart and your soul.”

movements, the Manufakturzentrum shows that a timepiece created here is an entirely different product than an inexpensive battery-powered watch. It’s something special and worth preserving. “I don’t think people’s fascination for these mechanical micro-computers has changed in any way. And when you show somebody that you can refurbish a pocket watch from 150 years ago to as-new condition today, and it still does its job exactly the same way as it did in 1868, I think people are universally fascinated by that.” Fascination. Emotion. Beauty. Grainger-Herr comes back to these ideas again and again. While some brands focus on achieving world records or increasing chronometry by

components and watchmakers hard at work. While building the Manufakturzentrum is an enormous accomplishment, in many ways, it’s just the beginning. Education is a critical element of Grainger-Herr’s plans for the future. Acknowledging that many young people view watches as unessential because they can tell the time on their phones, he firmly believes that education will bring a new value to watches that they didn’t even know existed. It’s easy to imagine a visit here radically changing how someone views watches. From the enormous equipment to the rows of artisans in white lab coats hand-

a fraction of a second, he believes it’s emotion that holds the key to IWC’s future. Perhaps this goes back to his first experiences with the brand, when he admired the design of the Portugieser dial as he passed a watch shop on his way to architecture classes. Or maybe his artistic background enables him to see something that more traditionally trained executives business.’ That means that at the end of the day, we’re creating a story and a dream that people fall in love with, which is aesthetically driven. You don’t fall in love with the numbers, or the efficiency. You fall in love with something that speaks to you, and speaks to your heart and your soul.” can’t. “As we are an emotional business, we’re in the ‘feel-good

decorating components and watchmakers assembling the