Ceramic watches have long been a specialty of the International Watch Company.
Back in the 1980s, when Swatch was coming to prominence building inexpensive, plastic-cased timekeepers, Schaffhausen-based IWC was experimenting with black zirconium oxide cases. In 1994, the brand released the ref. 3705 “Fliegerchronograph,” which has since become a pilot’s watch classic. These days, IWC not only manufactures its own ceramic-cased watches, but even develops proprietary materials in-house at an advanced manufacture that opened in 2018.
Ceramic—scratch-proof, lightweight, and able to take on color—is one thing, and manufacturing high-quality watches made from the material is still a relatively expensive, laborious process. But what if ceramic could be combined with a luminous material such that the entire watch would glow in the dark, and not just dial elements as on most conventional tool watches, or even the full dial as on some of IWC’s past creations? Now that would be an impressive feat, and would no doubt bring more potential customers into the ceramic watch fold.
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Sam Bloxham/Courtesy of IWC
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Sebastian Kawka/Courtesy of IWC
Well, that’s exactly what IWC has done. The company’s experimental division, XPL, has developed a patented new material called Ceralume that mixes ceramic powders with Super-LumiNova pigments, resulting in ceramic watch cases that glow in the dark for more than 24 hours. (Unlike radioactive tritium, which has a half-life of roughly 12.3 years, SLN doesn’t severely degrade over time—however, it does need to be “charged” in light before it will glow in darkness.) In order to mix the two materials such that the resulting material is homogenous and devoid of irregularities, a special ball milling process was used in combination with more conventional sintering.
The first watch produced using this new material is a one-off concept piece—a Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 with a luminescent case, dial, and even a glowing white rubber strap, all of which have been infused with SLN. (The brass dial plate is spayed with it and then printed; the strap is injection molded.) The result is a 10-year-old’s dream: a watch that fully glows in the dark like a ceiling covered in those stars that adorned every kid’s room in the ’80s and ’90s.
Again, unfortunately there’s just one of these to go around at the moment, and it would seem that you have to be a knighted, record-winning Formula 1 driver named Lewis Hamilton in order to rock one. (Hamilton was spotted in Monaco this past weekend with the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 on his wrist. And yes—he appeared to be positively glowing.) Tech like this, however, often begins as an expensive, experimental passion project before trickling down into more widespread, affordable fare. Here’s hoping that in a few years all of us will get the chance to rock a glow-in-the-dark ceramic watch—and fulfill a long-dormant childhood dream in the process.
