ViaLuxe Interview: IWC's Kurt Klaus, "Einstein of Schaffhausen"

VIALUXE:
Mr. Klaus, thank you for your time. Can you tell me what made you want to become a watchmaker?

KURT KLAUS:
As a boy, I liked to work or play with small things. So I had my small cars to construct - but everything I did - it had to be small.

As so I wanted to learn something in micro-mechanics and one of these things is watchmaking. And so with this idea, I had the possibility to go to watchmaking school in Switzerland to learn hand-crafted watchmaking during my four years. Almost all watchmaking in Switzerland (the industry) is in the west part of the country, but I was born in the east part, so I went there to learn watchmaking.
..jocob replica watches..
VIALUXE:
After you graduated from watchmaking school, what made you choose to go to IWC?

KURT KLAUS:
Because I was born in the east part of Switzerland, I wanted to go back in this part of the country and I had no choice. IWC was the only manufacture in this part of Switzerland. So I went to Schauffhausen. I asked, "Do you need a young watchmaker?"
..rolex replica
There I got an interview with Mr. Albert Pellaton, the technical director of IWC during this period. He said "Ok, you can start to work." So I started in January of 1957, and now in 2008, I am still here...
.prada replica handbags
VIALUXE:
Wow, that’s a great story. So when you got to IWC, what was the first watch you got to work on?

KURT KLAUS:
In the beginning, I had to learn a lot. After learning everything in school, I had to learn more. Mr. Pellaton said to me, "IWC watchmaker is not just a watchmaker, he is an IWC watchmaker!" And so I had to learn and I started to assemble movements. I remember the first movement I assembled was the hand-winding wristwatch movement for the Mark XI. -the pilot’s watch for the Royal Air Force. This was my first memory.

Later then, I assembled the first IWC automatic winding watches developed by Albert Pellaton.

VIALUXE:
The Pellaton winding system is an amazing technological advance for IWC. Can you talk a little bit about it for those who don't know how it works?

KURT KLAUS:
The Pellaton movement is one thing he developed. A new movement. A wristwatch movement with a very spacial automatic winding system. Usually the winding weight was turning around and they wound up in only one direction. Pellaton wanted to make something, a system that would wind up in both directions. And so he defined a very spacial mechanism that was different from all others on the market with a click system that are always winding up the movement. Albert Pellaton taught me, in the construction, to make everything as simple and robust as possible and he did this in his new winding system. It was so perfect, when I started to develop my first automatic movement in 1995 - which was the new Big Portuguese automatic movement - I said "this Pellaton system is so good", I used the same without any changes - I used the parts from Pellaton to set into this new automatic movement. This is Albert Pellaton and this is my memory to him.

VIALUXE:
What is the meaning of a Kurt Klaus watch?

KURT KLAUS:
Today it’s about the same as Albert Pellaton taught me. A watch is robust. I do not like the super slim movements. This is not IWC and this is not Kurt Klaus. I want to make something robust. So for instance, this new movement, in the Big Portuguese Automatic, is a little bit thick, but it is robust. And then next one, I made a concept for the new automatic for the Ingenieur, the 30mm. It is a little bit too thick, but it is robust. It is the same automatic winding system in it - and it works.

This is one thing but - for from the moment - I was developing complications. I had some real fascination for high complicated movements. The first perpetual calendar, IWC perpetual calendar, was very new at this time. It was different from all others. It was very easy for the user to adjust. And because of this - it was easier to produce. Because I was not so happy with all the other perpetual calendars before with all the push buttons around it to set the date - to set the moon phase and I was searching and I found a system to only turn the crown and the whole calendar system together moves. So when the IWC perpetual calendar stands still, you go for holidays - you don't use it - and then you have to adjust it. You pull the crown, and all indications move together. You turn until the date hand is on the correct date and all the others are correct - automatically.

And this was a real novelty in the year 1985. It was never before so easy to set a perpetual calendar. And, without all these push buttons, there were less parts inside - in the movement. So we had less parts to produce - less parts to assemble, and so this - again was the same as 40 years ago - something simple. So easy for the user, easy to produce, less parts, easy to assemble and the result was a lower price for the mechanism and the possibility to produce more. We were able - a few years later in the 90's able to produce more perpetual calendars then the rest of the watch industry together - because it was easier - but with the most and best indications. It was only the first indicating the whole year in all four digits. We have here - the year, it is a little bit small - the year 2008. And it changes automatically every end of the year. It was the first.
jocob replica watches
So, less parts - but more indications. With all these crazy ideas - I was working over four years - without any computer. In this time - I started in 1980-81. I didn't exactly know what was a computer - so I had everything to calculate in my mind to make the drawings with the pencil. Today young people cannot imagine how to work (without a computer) - but it was a calendar - over 22 years later - it is still the best.montblanc replica watches

The Pitch Alternative?

STATUS: TGIF!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? SHE WORKS HARD FOR THE MONEY by Donna Summer

What I’m looking for is a pitch alternative.

Hum… the problem is this. Most conferences charge a fee for a participant to do a pitch session with an agent or editor above and beyond the fee to attend the conference. This is often how conferences generate revenue to run the programs.

So right now, most conferences allow anyone who wants to sign up for pitch appointment to do so. There really is no monitoring of whether the writers have a finish project or even if their project fits with the agent they are pitching.

Most conferences assume that those interested in pitch appts. are doing their homework to sign up with the right person. We’d all like to think that writers would be in tune enough do that.

Unfortunately, that’s not the reality. Examining the conferences I’ve done just in the last year, which was actually a lot because I freakishly agreed to something like 9 conferences last year, I can tell you this. On average, more than 60% of the conference attendees who pitched me were not ready to pitch as they didn’t even have a complete manuscript.

At one conference I did last year, I’d say that the percentage rate was higher. More than 80% of the people I had pitch appointments with didn’t have an even close to finished manuscript for me to look at.

And yet, the agent/editor appts. are the biggest money generators for the conference. I get the necessity of that.

I’m just trying to find some other way to accommodate writers without finished projects to have time with an agent/editor.

Jessica suggested more social events planned for the participants and the faculty. I’m certainly not opposed to that but those events usually are not something that will generate the much needed revenue the conference organizers need.

Not only that but at social functions, agents and editors often like to hang together (because we like catching up with each other as well) and very few attendees feel confident enough to break that “inner circle” grouping. Hey, I’ve been guilty of that and I’m willing to ‘fess up to it. It just happens because we have so much to talk about. The participant interaction is probably not as high as it should be at these mixers.
Now the Pikes Peak conference does an interesting thing with their agent/editor hosted table at the lunch hour (which is free) but the tables are too big and the room is often too noisy to really work well except for the few attendees lucky enough to sit closest to the agent or editor.

So I’m trying to find some kind of happy medium that could work, and I’m open to suggestions.

So bring it on. How could we solve this problem?