Even though Lewis Hamilton will no longer be associated with Mercedes as of next year, his association with IWC will also be ending, he remains the most well-known representative of the Schaffhausen brand at this time.
At the F1 Monaco Grand Prix this past weekend, he was seen sporting a brand-new IWC timepiece, the Ceralume Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Concept Watch. This is their first ceramic watch that is completely luminescent.
IWC developed Ceralume, a novel proprietary material that blends Super-LumiNova’s light-emitting capabilities with the robust, lightweight, and scratch-resistant qualities of ceramic. They used a patent-pending manufacturing process to blend Super-LumiNova colors with ceramic powders to achieve this. The fact that RC Tritec’s Super-LumiNova is a ceramic compound makes this possible.
The end result is a cool white Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 that looks sleek and appealing. In low light, it shines a bright blue. Recently, there have been a number of advancements in luminous materials.
Bell & Ross launched LM3D, a new luminescent case material, with the release of the BR X5 Green Lum towards the end of last year. But what makes Ceralume such an interesting breakthrough is IWC’s experience with ceramics.
The 41mm size and the movement—which is likely the 69385 Calibre but hasn’t been confirmed—don’t really matter because the IWC Ceralume is a concept watch and the case material is what really matters. The only thing left to wonder is when a mainline IWC manufactured from Ceralume will appear. Given the online attention around the watch and its cultural significance as one of the final IWCs likely to be seen on Hamilton’s wrist before the major transition, I would venture that it won’t endure that long in the larger scheme of things.
