IWC and Mercedes-AMG Dropped Two New Performance Watches in Time for F1 Weekend
IWC first teamed up with Mercedes-AMG back in 2004. With nearly 20 years of collaborations under their belts, it marks one of the longest-standing partnerships between a watchmaker and a luxury car company. The duo went on to expand their work a decade ago with IWC becoming the official partner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team in 2013. In honor of the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix, the pair is launching two new performance chronographs.
The new Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41 comes in two variations: one with a more classic look rendered in lightweight titanium and one with a sleek Ceratanium construction and sporty turquoise accents. Both models feature a modern 41 mm build and house the IWC-manufactured 69385 caliber movement. In each iteration, you get a vertical arrangement of the chronograph subdials and a day/date window at three o’clock. Still, the show point of both new Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronos is the ceramic bezel design featuring a tachymeter scale, which allows the wearer to measure the average speed in relation to the distance traveled all by pushing the chronograph’s start button.
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“The Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41 combines our extensive know-how in developing industry-leading chronographs with our comprehensive expertise in advanced materials,” explains Chris Grainger-Herr, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen. “Both these new chronographs feature ceramic bezels with tachymeter scales, adding the dimension of speed to the highly accurate stop time measurements and making these robust chronographs the perfect companions for people with a dynamic, fast-paced lifestyle.”
For the titanium iteration, the Ref. IW388305/04 or Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41 AMG, you get a combination of brushed and polished details and the choice of a black rubber strap or complementary titanium bracelet with H-links and an integrated folding clasp. IWC has been a pioneer of utilizing titanium in watchmaking, launching its first watch with a titanium case and bracelet back in 1980.
Alternatively, the Ceratanium version—the Ref. IW388306/07 Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41 Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team—combines the lightness and structural integrity of titanium with a hardness and scratch resistance similar to ceramic. The result offers a different aesthetic with a matte black finish, which is also available with the option of a rubber strap or matching Ceratanium bracelet.
Each version of the Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41 is available today. The standard variation will set you back $9,800 on a rubber strap or $11,700 on a bracelet. For the Ceratanium version, the rubber strap option is priced at $13,700 and the bracelet iteration is priced at $19,900.
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