At first, the forms used for the forging Breitling Airwolf process could not withstand the high pressures involved. Finally, sintered steel forms proved to be a solution. Titanium also requires the right speed to remove material during milling, lathing and drilling. The right speed and good cooling liquids are essential to prevent (local) overheating of the material. A chip has to break at the right moment/place and not interrupt the material-removing process by sticking to the object etc.. IWC mastered all these problems and also managed to polish the material, which the technical literature at that time said was impossible. To eliminate thread erosion of titanium parts, IWC used nitride hardening (certainly before Ventura introduced their nitride hardened case), *** it three times as hard as hardened steel and 1000 times harder than untreated titanium.Pretty impressive, no? We think so, and that is why we are particularly happy that we found Breitling Airwolf one of these original titanium IWC/Porsche Design collaborations.
The year is 1980. Ronald Regan is President, Terry Bradshaw has just been named Superbowl MVP, most of the Hodinkee staff hasn't been born yet, and IWC is spending most of their time *** watches for someone else. A strange scenario, we know.It was in this year though that IWC along with Ferdinand Porsche's OTHER company created the world's very first titanium wristwatch. That doesn't impress you? It should, because as you may or may not know, titanium is a non-magnetic and extremely rigid substance. Porsche Design had originally contracted the manufacturing of the case and bracelet to a third-party, but this third-party was actually forced to give up the endeavor after 18 months of trying (and clearly failing).It was IWC who took the reigns of this considerable design project. This is particularly interesting because at the time Schaffhausen was producing movements and movements only, no cases. Despite their relative novice status, they completed the project for Mr. Porsche. The details of this accomplishment should not go unsaid, read here from Breitling Airwolf TimeZone:Manufacturing the titanium case for the Porsche Design watch involved hot forging.
