2 posts tagged titanium

Rough, rugged, and ready for action. Are we talking about the world class athletes featured in our new IWC Challenge section? Well, yes. But we are also referring to many athlete’s favorite IWC timepiece: the Ingenieur Double Chronograph Titanium.

Rugged and ready to go: The IWC Ingenieur Double Chronograph Titanium

We at IWC like to say the Ingenieur Double Chronograph Titanium proves itself in practical use under grueling conditions, and we know that many of our featured athletes operate often under such conditions.

The 2012 Tour de France saw Swiss cyclist Fabian Cancellara wearing the IWC Ingenieur Double Chronograph Titanium while he raced. This is a rare occurrence in sports where weight is an important consideration (similarly an issue for Azzam’s crew during the Volvo Ocean Race) — but the Ingeneiur’s lightweight titanium case helps to alleviate that concern.

Fabian Cancellara in the 2012 Tour de France wearing an Ingenieur Double Chronograph Titanium

Additionally, this watch’s “rugged” classification is in part due to the use of titanium: it wears well, is not obtrusive on the wrist, and does not cause skin allergies. For someone like ultracyclist Dani Wyss, who is training to compete in the 2013 Race Across America (RAAM), extensively long rides necessitate a timepiece with extreme precision but that does not interrupt performance. The Ingenieur Chronograph is such a watch.

In fact it was the first in its family to incorporate a rattrapante, or splitsecond hand — this allows you to keep the stopwatch running (tracking your overall time) while resetting the intermediate hand that can time laps, turns, or other rates of performance.

The IWC with its black rubber watch band

For our friend, world renowned triathlete Chris “Macca” McCormack, this level of precision and time tracking can be useful; especially when you’re a two time Ironman World Champion as he is. With such a masterpiece of precision (or as we’d call it, an athlete’s most advanced tool), the watch comes with a 44 hour reserve and is water resistance to 12 bar.

Triathelete Chris McCormack with the IWC Ingenieur Double Chronograph Titanium

Whether rock climbing, swimming, sky diving, race car driving, snorkeling, or just wanting a sophisticated way to tell time – the Ingenieur Chronograph can deliver on it all.

After months of tracking the recently completed Volvo Ocean Race, we still have boating on the brain. So what better way to indulge our passion for the open seas than to take a look at the IWC Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph, a watch with a storied nautical history.

The original Yacht Club Automatic launched at the Basel Watch Show in 1967. It represented a turning point in the IWC heritage and was a true innovation in our design history. Featuring a spring suspension and mounted on rubber buffers, the watch had incredible resistance to shocks. This made it highly suitable for ocean use. While this was just one example of the Yacht Club’s innovation and precision, it helps indicate why it was a hugely popular timepiece.

One of the 1970’s Yacht Club watches (image: Hodinkee)

In 2010 we released an updated version of the Yacht Club Chronograph, as part of the Portuguese family, making it the first sport inspired watch in that collection. We issued the newly minted member of the Portuguese collection in stainless steel and 18-carat red gold, and exclusively for the (above mentioned) Volvo Ocean Race, we created it in titanium. Talk about a watch made for rough waters! 

The Volvo Ocean Race edition (source: Hodinkee)

However this was no ordinary relaunch of a classic watch – the Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph included the IWC 89360 calibre, a device which took our internal team four years to design and develop. Combine that with a 68 hour power reserve and water resistance up to 6 bar, and this is an aesthetic and technical marvel. It pays respect to its much revered predecessors and takes the Yacht Club’s reputation to a whole new level.

Today’s version (in stainless steel) of the Portuguese Yacht Club Chronograph