IWC takes its aviation watchmaking into space

Swiss watchmaker IWC is extending its aviation heritage into a new frontier, with a design specifically for the demands of human space flight. The Pilot’s Venturer Vertical Drive has been developed with Vast, a Long Beach-based space habitation company that is exploring commercial low-Earth-orbit projects.

Unlike previous watches that have gone to space — most famously the Omega Speedmaster — IWC’s is not a variant of an existing type of watch, but one built from the ground up and specifically tested in Vast’s facilities. It has been put through the same simulation launch testing as Vast’s space equipment.

The watch has received space flight qualification for flight on Vast’s Haven-1, with ambitions to be the world’s first commercial space station and due to launch next year. This will be followed by Haven-2, which is intended to replace the International Space Station that was launched in 1998 by Nasa and other space agencies. The ISS is expected to be de-orbited by 2030.

“Space is really the ultimate frontier,” says IWC chief executive Chris Grainger-Herr. “When you push the boundaries, and really put yourself to the test, that’s often when real innovation and progress happens.”

Space is increasingly part of IWC’s strategy, starting around 2016 when the watchmaker began partnering with the professional military aviation industry, parlaying its heritage in aviation watches and connecting directly with pilots. In 2021, IWC sent its first watch to space, a Pilot’s Watch Chronograph, on Inspiration4, the first all-civilian orbital space flight. Nine more IWC watches followed, including four on 2024’s Polaris Dawn flight, a five-day, privately funded mission that featured a spacewalk by billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman (who in December was appointed Nasa’s administrator).

As with all navigational pursuits, timekeeping in space is essential, especially without the usual natural indicators of time at hand. Haven-1, for example, will orbit close to Earth, at an altitude of around 450km, with those on board experiencing rapid sequences of day and night — as many as 16 sunrises and sunsets in a 24-hour period.

Crew members will keep to a strict schedule of tasks and activities, which are set in five-minute increments. Add to the fact that distances are measured in time, and precision, accuracy and reliability are paramount. No wonder mechanical watches have long been used in space flight for redundancy and backup purposes.

IWC’s Pilot’s Venturer Vertical Drive was designed with Vast’s crew in mind. Tailored for astronauts wearing space suits with gloves, the watch does not have a crown and instead all functions are controlled through a patent-pending rotating bezel system. A case-side rocker switch enables the wearer to change between various functions, which include winding the movement and setting the home or mission times.

The former was a notable inclusion, for astronauts to stay connected at home and keep to familiar work and sleep routines — or what IWC refers to as the human experience. “It was very clear that we wanted to find this essence of the tool watch,” says Grainger-Herr, “but at the same time, maintaining the clarity and intuitive operation — and [create] something that really feels human-centric.”

Other design elements are truly space-qualified — another differentiator from past “space” watches. The Pilot’s Venturer Vertical Drive is crafted in advanced performance materials, including Ceratanium (IWC’s ceramicised titanium). Ceramics are frequently used in the aerospace industry for their robustness and resistance to extreme temperature fluctuations.

All functions of IWC’s Pilot’s Venturer Vertical Drive are controlled through a rotating bezel system

IWC utilised ceramicised titanium for its resistance to sudden temperature shifts

Meanwhile, the mission reference time is displayed in a 24-hour format, which retains the familiar 24-hour rhythm of Earth time, as the space station completes an orbit around Earth roughly every 90 minutes.

The watch has a notably pared-back look, which Kelton Temby, senior mission manager at Vast, says echoes both parties’ approach to doing more with less. “IWC is pretty aligned with Vast on precision and overlap of performance and engineering and benefiting people,” he says. At the same time, he adds, “there have been things intentionally brought in by IWC . . . The design intent is for IWC to help the crew connect as well as perform.”

Interest in space tourism may be growing, but Grainger-Herr admits that the watch, priced at £22,600, is not aimed strictly at those wanting to explore space and is just as much about storytelling. “It’s always about the meaning that these watches carry,” he says. “That’s why the design and how they’re created is so essential to what we express when wearing one of these pieces.”

Amit Puri is a Washington DC-based watch collector and expert in space systems design. An aerospace industry veteran of nearly 30 years, he is currently president and chief executive of Kurtek, an engineering company that supports government agencies in developing space operation systems. Puri says he is drawn to IWC’s new watch for its rigorous, ground-up engineering approach, while praising the watchmaker for not simply re-factoring an existing design.

“The design suggests that IWC approached development through a disciplined engineering framework, moving through programmatic control gates much like those used in aerospace programmes,” he says. “Such qualification processes indicate that this product is engineered not merely as a symbolic space watch, but as a robust instrument designed for genuine operational resilience.”

And while not an astronaut himself, he adds: “I would be thrilled to strap this watch on my wrist to appreciate the brilliance of its engineering — but perhaps in its second or third iteration with improvements to the toggle switch and perhaps with a chronograph complication.”

Indeed, iterations are integral to Vast’s space station ambitions, and one sense that IWC’s debut Pilot’s Venturer Vertical Drive is just the beginning, too. Grainger-Herr describes the watch as “really reflective of where space is going” — but clearly also where IWC dares to go. As Christian Knoop, IWC’s chief design officer, adds: “This is an interpretation and our personal vision — of where we take the brand and where we take a product, which is created not only technically, but also visually to inspire people.”