IWC Marks 50 Years of the Ingenieur SL With a Fine-Dining Residency

The Reveal

• IWC Schaffhausen is hosting the IWC Ingenieur Residency, a five-day pop-up at the V-ZUG Studio in Zurich from 25 to 29 August 2026, combining fine dining with an exhibition dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Gérald Genta-designed Ingenieur SL Reference 1832.
• Two-Michelin-star, 18-GaultMillau-point chef Dominik Hartmann of Restaurant Magdalena has devised a vegetarian menu whose structure mirrors the Ingenieur’s design language.
• The accompanying FORM UND TECHNIK exhibition traces the creative dialogue between technology and aesthetics that defined the 1976 original and continues to shape the current collection.
• Places for the evening dining experience are limited and bookable via magdalena.ch; the venue opens daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the exhibition and exclusive matcha creations from The Matcha Club.

Design & Heritage

In 1976, Gérald Genta handed IWC Schaffhausen a reference that has structured the brand’s identity ever since.

The Ingenieur SL, Reference 1832, arrived at the height of Genta’s creative powers, shortly after he had already reshaped the industry with integrated-bracelet steel sports watches for other Geneva manufactures. For IWC, the Ingenieur SL was not a derivative exercise: it established a product category that Swiss watchmaking had not articulated before, fusing industrial engineering rigour with sculptural precision in a single stainless-steel case.

Fifty years on, the Reference 1832’s proportions, bracelet integration and five-sided case architecture remain the direct point of departure for IWC’s current Ingenieur collection, launched in 2023 and steadily expanded since. “With the Ingenieur SL, Gérald Genta created a design 50 years ago that is ingenious in how it combines design and technology, while continuing to shape the aesthetic of our Ingenieur collection to this day,” states Franziska Gsell Etterlin, Chief Marketing Officer of IWC Schaffhausen.

The Collection Today

The 2023 Ingenieur collection has grown into one of IWC’s most architecturally coherent modern ranges.

The original 40 mm stainless-steel model has been joined by the Ingenieur Automatic 35, a more compact variant optimised for smaller wrists. Beyond steel, the collection now spans black and coloured ceramic, 18-carat red gold, and titanium — a material palette that reflects IWC Schaffhausen’s long-standing expertise in performance materials, including its proprietary Ceratanium. At the top of the range sits the Ingenieur Tourbillon 41, which houses what the brand calls the undisputed “queen of complications”. Across every reference, the integrated bracelet remains the constant, its geometry drawn directly from Genta’s 1976 blueprint.

For collectors based in the GCC, the breadth of the current range is significant: the availability of ceramic and precious-metal variants positions the Ingenieur alongside established luxury sports references, while the 35 mm model extends the collection’s reach to a wider audience.

Movement & Materials

The FORM UND TECHNIK exhibition gives the Residency its intellectual spine.

Running concurrently with the evening dining experience, the exhibition occupies the V-ZUG Studio during daytime hours and addresses what good design actually means in the context of precision engineering. Its central argument is the interplay between technology and aesthetics: how Genta resolved the functional demands of a professional instrument watch into a case shape that has not required fundamental reinvention across five decades. The exhibition traces that continuity from the original Reference 1832 through to the current Ingenieur collection, positioning the 1976 design as both a historical document and a live brief.

IWC’s own engineering history provides context here. Founded in Schaffhausen in 1868 by American watchmaker and engineer Florentine Ariosto Jones, the company built its reputation on professional instrument watches, chronographs, and calendars. Its advanced engineering division, XPL, continues that work today, developing technologies for environments including jet aviation and human spaceflight. The Portugieser Chronograph Ceratanium offers another example of that materials-led approach applied across the wider catalogue.

The Culinary Dimension

Pairing a watch anniversary with a two-Michelin-star kitchen is a deliberate, considered choice rather than a promotional convenience.

Dominik Hartmann, aged 34 and the chef behind Restaurant Magdalena in Rickenbach, Canton of Schwyz, brings 18 GaultMillau points and a reputation built on modern vegetarian fine dining to the project. His menu for the Residency translates the Ingenieur’s design principles, its geometric precision and its refusal of unnecessary ornament, into culinary form. The collaboration with The Matcha Club, available to daytime visitors, extends the same register to a more accessible register throughout the day.

The Residency’s five-day format, Tuesday 25 to Saturday 29 August, gives IWC Schaffhausen a concentrated, experiential platform for the anniversary that operates outside the standard trade-fair calendar. For guests who cannot attend, full information on the current Ingenieur collection remains available at press.iwc.com.

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