IWC Creates Pilot's Watch Chronographs For World's First All-Civilian Orbital Mission
The watches will then be auctioned for charity on their return to Earth.
IWC has created four unique Pilot’s Watch Chronographs that will be worn by the crew of the first all-civilian mission into orbit next month.
Inspiration4, the brainchild of pilot and billionaire founder of Shift4 Payments Jared Isaacman, is said to represent a “new era for human spaceflight and exploration” and will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in September.
Upon returning to earth the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition “Inspiration4” watches will be auctioned off to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. Each of the chronographs represents one of the mission’s values; Leadership, Hope, Generosity and Prosperity.
The watches feature stark white ceramic cases with titanium caseback, white leather and rubber straps, dark blue lacquered dials pad-printed with stars, to represent space, and the Inspiration4 logo. The four casebacks are engraved with the name of the crew member and the mission value they represent.
“From our founder Florentine Ariosto Jones, who journeyed from America to Switzerland to revolutionize watchmaking, to our endless appetite for innovation, IWC is a company of pioneers. We are incredibly proud to partner with the Inspiration4 mission, which shares so many of our values, to make history together and raise funds for such a good cause,” explains IWC CEO Christoph Grainger-Herr.
The remaining crew are Hayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and a pediatric cancer survivor, Dr Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old entrepreneur and trained pilot, and Christopher Sembroski, a 41-year-old aerospace industry employee and United States Air Force veteran. The crew is currently undergoing commercial astronaut training at SpaceX.
In other watch news, Phillips to offer world-first Philippe Dufour full set at auction.
