Eqotime meets Christian Knoop, design director for IWC Schaffhausen

Text/photo: Britta Rossander & Mia Litström

Eqotime's Britta Rossander and Mia Litström spoke with IWC’s design director Christian Knoop during Watches & Wonders 2023 with the new IWC Ingenieur in focus.

Christian says that already as a child he had an interest in design. For 15 years he has designed watches for IWC and the Ingenieur Automatic 40 is the latest creation, a model that was well received when it was shown. It is a modern development of the IWC Ingenieur SL that was drawn by Gérald Genta 47 years ago.

Christian's responsibility is to take care of the brand's creative and design expression. He and his team they work with all the visual and static aspects of the brand and he means that design always fills a purpose that shows itself in a project or in a product. The design gives information and orientation in the form of communication about the character or the value of a brand.

-Good design is innovative, good design is easy to use and good design lasts a long time are values we take into account when we design new watches.

Ingenieur is an important series for IWC when it comes to engineering spirit and progressive design, since the brand is dominated by Pilot, Portugieser and Portofino. Ingenieur has its place in the portfolio, especially the one in 40 mm, a compact automatic in steel with a steel bracelet. 

Three references in steel and one in titanium were shown after work that had gone on for five years.