My trip to Schaffhausen, Switzerland

[Notastranger]

I had the opportunity to visit Schaffhausen, Switzerland last year as part of a training for IWC North America (I work for an authorized dealer). It was an amazing trip and a truely beautiful place. I was with a group of about 30 from stores all over the US and Canada. We were in Switzerland for about three days. I wore an IWC IW3718-02 on my trip, pictured later in this thread.

We landed in Zürich and took a shuttle to our hotel to check in. We had time to kill before the rest of the group arrived, so we had lunch at Schloessli Woerth in Neuhausen and then rode a boat to "the rock" at the bottom of Rhine Falls, the largest waterfall in Europe (it looks so much smaller in pictures lol).













A few of us chose to walk back to our hotel. It was only a few miles, and a very nice way to explore the town.











In the town of Schaffhausen













the IWC factory



We disassembled about 25 pieces of this movement. We left the mainspring, among other parts, which would be easy to mess up.











Falken beer, brewed in Schaffhausen





The next day we took a scenic flight on a Ju-Air Ju-52 plane from Dübendorf air force center. The plane was built in 1939 and was used to transport cargo in the 40's but was converted to be a passenger plane. Honestly, the smoothest plane I've ever been on.







































Dinner (and more beer) at Güterhof







Back at IWC, learning about the Portuguese Sidérale Scafusia











Then we got a tour of the factory. Here's a few of us watching the expert polishing a rose gold case



Then we visited the museum and I saw some really neat stuff (in no particular order)







55mm Big Pilot on a leg strap























From there, we got to spend some hands-on time with basically the entire line. Here are a few that really grabbed my attention:





Rose gold stitching



















In town, there's a historical vineyard at the Munot city fortress. The Fortress was built in the 16th century. We had some time in between training and dinner so a colleague and I went expoloring. It was quite a number of steps up a huge hill, but it provided a great view of the town.







And at the top of the hill was the fortress/castle type thing.













The IWC factory









Walking through town back to our hotel, we stopped by a local jewelry store







Breguet tattoo, I believe it's a No. 5 but correct me if I'm wrong