IWC - Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar in Ceratanium

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Aquatimer diver’s watches, IWC has released a special edition featuring a world first: a Ceratanium case.

This particular material is as light and unbreakable as titanium, but also as hard and scratch-resistant as ceramic. Aesthetically pleasing with its matte black colour, it also offers excellent skin tolerance.

The material experts at IWC have been working on the development of this particular composite based on a titanium alloy for more than five years.

Introduced in 1967, the the first Aquatimer diver’s watch was water-resistant up to 200 metres and had an internal rotating bezel for setting the dive time.

The 49 mm case of the new Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month Edition "50 Years Aquatimer" (ref. IW379403) houses the in-house self-winding movement, Calibre 89801, which beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour (4 Hz) and offers 68 hours of power reserve.

The dial is black, and some components of the IWC-manufactured calibre 89802 have also been coloured black, such as the rotor of the selfwinding system. The technical features include a digital perpetual calendar displaying the date and month in large numerals in the style of a digital watch, automatically recognising different month lengths and leap years.

The energy required to advance the month display discs is built up continuously throughout the month by a quick-action switch. A spring-loaded lever on the quick-action switch is lifted a tiny bit further each day by a cam. At the end of the month, the energy is released and the quick-action switch jumps instantaneously to its starting position and advances both of the month display discs individually, or together, by one position, depending on the month. On 31 December, the leap year disc is also advanced at the same time.

The chronograph with flyback function displays stop times, combined in a totalizer at 12 o’clock.

Water-resistant up to 10 bar, this watch - like all Aquatimer models - features an external/internal rotating bezel for setting the dive time. The IWC SafeDive system ensures that the internal rotating bezel can only be adjusted when the external bezel is rotated in an anticlockwise direction. As a result, even if the external bezel is accidentally moved, zero hour – the time at which the diver can return to the surface without the need for decompression stops – cannot be exceeded.

Thanks to the quick-change system, the black rubber strap can be replaced with another strap very easily.

Limited to just 50 pieces, the special-edition Aquatimer with a Ceratanium case will be available in IWC boutiques from this month at the price of Swiss Francs 50,000. iwc.com