The 73-year-old Kurt Klaus speaks with the precision of the watches that he has been making for the past half century: “I have been with IWC for 50 years, nine months and fifteen days exactly; so we say it is 50 years.” A living link to an earlier era of watchmaking, Mr Klaus has recently been accorded the honour of having an IWC watch named after him, which seems a gratifying twist on the loyal service reward of a gold watch.

But in many ways the Da Vinci perpetual calendar Kurt Klaus limited edition has always been Mr Klaus’s watch. A miracle of micro engineering – it is mechanically programmed to give the wearer the right date and time until the year 2500, requiring only minute adjustment about once a century – the story of this watch began half a century ago when young Kurt, having finished four years of watchmaking school presented himself at IWC.