IWC Schaffhausen – Aquatimer Ceratanium Watch
To mark the 50th anniversary of Aquatimer diver’s watches, IWC Schaffhausen has released a special edition Aquatimer with the first Ceratanium case.
Ceratanium is as light and unbreakable as titanium, but also as hard and scratch-resistant as ceramic, scoring well for its high skin tolerance and a striking matte black colour.
When diving with oxygen tanks began to gain popularity, IWC introduced the first Aquatimer in 1967. This diver’s watch, water-resistant up to 200 metres, had an internal rotating bezel for setting the dive time. This established a tradition of diver’s watches from Schaffhausen, which continues to this day, and the brand is now celebrating the 50th anniversary of the same watch family with the first watch case made of Ceratanium.
“Since we already had a pioneering role in the use of titanium and ceramic in the 1980s, we are now once again highlighting our expertise with materials by employing Ceratanium.” – Christoph Grainger-Herr, IWC Schaffhausen CEO
Material experts at IWC have been working on the development of this particular composite based on a titanium alloy for more than five years. The result, the Ceratanium Aquatimer, is limited to just 50 pieces.
Technical features include a digital perpetual calendar, which displays the date and month in large numerals in the style of a digital watch, automatically recognising different month lengths and leap years.
Like all Aquatimer models, this watch, which is water resistant up to 10 bar, 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.
The Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month Edition “50 Years Aquatimer” Diver’s Watch, £40,287, by IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN
