Hot on the heels of Watches & Wonders 2024 — where IWC turned heads with its updated Portugieser line-up — the Schaffhausen-based watchmaker has announced an all-new material innovation: Ceralume.
While IWC is best known today for its Pilot’s watches and relaunched Ingenieur collection, it has been responsible for more than its fair share of material boundary-pushing. In fact, IWC launched the world’s first ceramic-cased watch in 1986 and has since debuted other proprietary materials including the ceramic and titanium alloy Ceratanium.
In this tradition, IWC has been working over the last couple of years to create a form of ceramic that could glow in the dark. We got a glimpse of it on the wrist of Lewis Hamilton at Monaco but today, we get our first official look at the material with this prototype Pilot’s chronograph. Not only does the case glow in the dark, but so too do the dial and strap, ensuring it shines as brightly as possible.
This material innovation has come about thanks to IWC experimentation with mixing ceramic powder and high-grade Super-LumiNova pigments (manufactured in Switzerland by RC Tritec), which was reportedly a challenging process to achieve consistency of colour and brightness and can “glow blueish in the dark for more than 24 hours.”
The all-white ceramic Pilot’s Watch Chronograph TOP GUN Edition “Lake Tahoe” is already one of Boss Hunting’s favourite references in the IWC catalogue, but a fully glow-in-the-dark version could be even better on the wrist. There’s no word on when IWC Ceralume will make it into production, or what form it might take, but IWC’s future only looks to be brighter and brighter.
