The world of haute horlogerie timepieces and French filmmaking join forces as IWC Schaffhausen partners Festival du Film Francophone d’Angoulême to promote French-speaking films from various countries including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada, Switzerland, Africa and the Middle East. 

This is not the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer’s first collaboration with the industry; instead it marks another major milestone in the brand’s commitment to this form of art and expression. The festival, now in its eigth year, took place from Aug 25 to 30 and ended with a gala dinner themed “Pour l’amour du cinéma”. It was hosted at Château de Maumont with a list of French film legends and stars of the silver screen in attendance. 

One of the eight awards presented at the closing ceremony last week was the Valois IWC du Réalisateur for best director — awarded to Emmanuel Finkiel for his film Je ne suis pas un salaud. In addition to the award itself, he also received an IWC Portofino Hand-Wound Eight Days from IWC.

IWC chief executive officer Georges Kern, when describing the parallels between watchmaking and the world of film, said that, “Every watch tells a story about its provenance, culture and tradition. Superficially, its job is to tell us the time, but the message it emits goes far beyond that. It is an individual means of expression, a work of art that moves us. The interplay of its many parts reminds us of the way actors, producers and the people behind the camera painstakingly assemble a cinematic work scene by scene.”

The partnership represents the passion and precision involved in watch and filmmaking alike as well as the creative input of countless individuals that results in a work of art, which not only tells a story but for a few hours, transports us away from reality.

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on September 7, 2015.