Jones, Florentine Ariosto

Florentine Ariosto Jones (15 Feb. 1841 - 18 Oct. 1916) was a US-American engineer and entrepreneur. Together with Charles Lewis Kidder in 1868 he founded the International Watch Company (IWC) in Schaffhausen.

The manufactory on the Rhine - far away from the watch centers of western Switzerland - owes its name and existence to this American. He found there, not far from the famous Rhine Falls, a newly built hydroelectric power plant for his machines and thus ideal conditions for his passion to build perfect mechanical movements for an international market.