Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Ceralume®

THE WATCH WITH T WO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT EXPRESSIONS: IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN DEBUTS THE CER ALUME® TECHNOLOGY IN ITS PILOT’ S WATCHES COLLEC TION

IWC Schaffhausen launches the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Ceralume® at Watches and Wonders Geneva. This fully luminous watch is limited to 250 pieces and crafted using IWC’s proprietary Ceralume® luminous ceramic technology. To enhance the striking glow effect created by the luminous ceramic case, the white dial and the white rubber strap are also enriched with Super-LumiNova® pigments. These pigments function like a light storage battery, allowing the entire watch to glow in a vivid blue hue for more than 24 hours.

Ceramics exemplify the comprehensive expertise in advanced materials that IWC Schaffhausen has built up over the past four decades. Since pioneering this hard, scratch-resistant material in 1986, the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer has continuously enhanced its expertise in this field. Significant developments have included watch cases crafted from brown silicon nitride, black boron carbide, or a ceramic matrix composite (CMC). Last year, IWC introduced its proprietary luminous ceramic technology, Ceralume®, and presented the first concept watch. Now, this groundbreaking material innovation, combined with one of IWC’s signature complications, makes its official debut in the Pilot’s Watches collection.

Limited to 250 pieces, the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Ceralume® (Ref. IW505801) features a 46.5-millimetre case made of luminous white ceramic. The Ceralume® case is paired with a white luminous dial and a white rubber strap, both enhanced with Super-LumiNova® pigments. The indices and numerals are printed in a different shade of white on the dial, while the grey hands are filled with luminous material. This makes the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Ceralume® a watch with two entirely different expressions. In daylight, it captivates with its varying shades of white and grey and the interplay of shiny and matte surfaces. In darkness, the watch transforms completely; the case, dial, and strap emit an intense bluish glow, while the numerals and hands appear as nothing but dark shadows against the fully luminous dial.

Ceralume® is the result of a multi-year development effort by IWC’s engineering division XPL, which was supported by experts from RC Tritec. This leading Swiss technology company is renowned for its Super-LumiNova® luminous pigments. Acting similar to a light-storage battery, this ceramic compound absorbs light energy from sunlight or artificial light and re-emits it as visible light, a cycle that can be repeated indefinitely.

While conventional white ceramic is created by mixing zirconium oxide with other metallic oxides, luminous ceramic requires a blend of ceramic powders and Super-LumiNova® pigments. The main challenge is achieving a completely homogeneous mixture of these raw materials, which have different particle sizes. To do this, IWC’s engineers designed a dedicated ball-milling process. Ceramic powders and Super-LumiNova® pigments are placed in a rotating cylindrical drum partially filled with small balls. As the drum spins, the balls are lifted and then dropped in a cascading motion, using both impact and attrition to break down the mixture into a finer, more homogeneous powder.

THE EMBLEMATIC PERPETUAL CALENDAR COMPLICATION

The Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Ceralume® features IWC’s legendary perpetual calendar complication, developed by Kurt Klaus in the 1980s. Mechanically programmed to recognize the varying lengths of months, the calendar also automatically adds a leap day every four years at the end of February. The date, weekday, month and moon phase are displayed across four subdials, while the four-digit year display is located between 7 and 8 o’clock. IWC’s signature Double Moon® display shows the moon as seen from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Thanks to a precisely calculated reduction gear, it only deviates by one day after 577.5 years.

HIGH-END AUTOMATIC CALIBRE WITH PELLATON WINDING SYSTEM

The calendar module is powered by the IWC-manufactured 52616 calibre. Featuring a Pellaton winding system reinforced with components made of virtually wear-free ceramic, the movement stores a power reserve of 168 hours (7 days) in the mainspring. The luminous details even extend to the back of the watch, where the “Probus Scafusia” medallion integrated into the rotor is made of Super-LumiNova® and glows in the dark. Decorated with circular graining and fitted with blued screws, the movement is visible through the transparent sapphire glass case back.

A DEVELOPMENT FROM IWC’S ENGINEERING DIVISION XPL

IWC Experimental (IWC XPL) is the in-house engineering division of IWC Schaffhausen. The department focuses on fundamental research in areas like shock protection and new materials. Its mission is to develop technologies, prototypes and products that are designed to enhance the durability of mechanical watches and extend their fields of application to environments with extreme conditions, such as space. The first brainchild of IWC XPL was the SPRIN-g PROTECT® shock absorber system, followed by the luminescent ceramic technology Ceralume®.

IWC Schaffhausen is not the owner of the Super-LumiNova® trademarks. These marks are protected as the legal property of a third party.