Not every chronograph is meant for the race track. In fact, IWC’s Pilot’s Watch line — arguably its most lauded — has released several chronograph iterations over the years but never in a way that was expressly dedicated to the track itself. This may come as a surprise seeing as the Swiss watchmaker has been partners with Mercedes-AMG since 2004 and with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team since 2013. However, previous timepieces have never left the sphere of aviation, truly, until now.
IWC has unveiled two new models in its Pilot’s Watch series: the Performance Chronograph 41 AMG and the Performance Chronograph 41 Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team, which are essentially the same, save for the case material and some of the colors. Both powered by the same in-house caliber 69385 automatic chronograph movement (viewed through an exhibition caseback), the timepieces sport a left-oriented triple register layout on the dial, with a day-date window on the right side. As opposed to previous chrono editions, these pieces feature a tachymeter scale on the ceramic bezel in order to calculate speed on the track.
At first glance, you’ll notice that the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team version has a seafoam green-colored hand on the small seconds subdial, as well as the minute track indices and day-date font (the regular AMG Pilot’s Watch has white for all of its accenting). Although, the main difference will come in the case material. Compared to the Performance Chronograph 41 AMG, which sports a grade 5 titanium material for the case and bracelet, the F1 counterpart has a case and bracelet made from black-colored Ceratanium, which blends titanium and ceramic in an innovative way. Both models come in a rubber strap option as well.
As expected, the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team is priced a bit higher than the AMG watch, starting at $13,700 and $9,800, respectively. Both Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41 models should be available soon from IWC.
