Update: the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Edition Mercedes-AMG Petronas dresses in pink for the 2024 Miami Grand Prix
A year has passed since the presentation of the new Fake IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition Mercedes-AMG Petronas. The Miami Grand Prix was held for the first time and the Swiss brand took the opportunity to present the first official watch of the collaboration with the now historic partner.
Worn by members of the Anglo-German team, the chronograph dedicated to members of the Mercedes-AMG team had a gem: a Petronas green colored strap customized with the team’s initials.
In anticipation of the next Miami Grand Prix, expected next weekend, a week after another city Grand Prix, that of Baku, IWC has dressed the watch in pink, Miami pink, using it exclusively for the strap. More than a new model, a variant that celebrates Miami and Miami Beach, and the pastel colors of its art-deco buildings.
Bars, hotels, shops: pink has become the reference color since mid-last year. Miami Pink is now a “trademark”, which celebrates the lifestyle of the city and can be found everywhere, from the Miami Design District to the sportswear of the famous Miami Heat. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will obviously wear the watch during the race weekend and, for the occasion, also pink gloves and shoes.
The origins
IWC and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team waited nine years before creating a watch celebrating their long partnership in Formula 1. The new IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Edition Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team (the name is really long) it is the team’s first official watch and will debut during the Miami Grand Prix on the wrists of the members of the Anglo-German team during track operations and presumably also of Hamilton and Russell during the press meeting and events related to the race.
The launch reveals a strategy aimed at entering the F1 circus more decisively, as brands such as Bell & Ross already do successfully with Alpine (and in my opinion the North American market was not chosen by chance); the project definitively identifies the chronograph as the product of choice, after the Pilot’s Watch collection appeared during the race weekends in multiple variations except for the one specifically designed to measure competitions. IWC has, in rotation, even shown its experimental Shock Absorber XPL model (on Wolff’s wrist on more than one occasion) and, in the past, the Ingenieur collection, but the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph is the most suitable option.
Is it a mere marketing operation? Not properly or not exclusively; it is undoubtedly a classic co-branding project and yet the brand offers something more by decisively freeing the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Edition Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team from the original environment, the aeronautical one.
After the debut of the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition AMG, the Chronograph 41 Edition Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team is the second edition of a Pilot’s chronograph in grade 5 titanium, an alloy in natural harmony with the pedigree of a sector in which lightness and mechanical resistance they are essential requirements, both for the sports cars developed in Affalterbach and for the single-seaters that compete in the top series of motorsport. It is interesting to note that, unlike the AMG model, the new watch arrives with a case thickness reduced to 14.6 mm and in a 41 mm variant.
If the 41 mm size is ideal for this generation of the Pilot’s Watch (while hoping for the return of the golden 39mm size of the Fliegerchronograph), the thickness remains the weak link in the chain although the titanium, with a sandblasted finish, makes it more wearable than ever a chronograph whose size on the wrist is considerable as we verified during the latest edition of Watches and Wonders.
Aesthetically, the effect is impactful: the base of the dial is black with indices, numbers and hands filled with luminescent material whose pantone is the institutional teal green Petronas, the team’s technological partner. The watch comes with a reassuring yet sporty canvas-effect calfskin strap with contrasting stitching, but a rubber replacement strap is available for purchase, with pin buckle and quick-release halves, an ideal solution for the summer. The watch is also waterproof up to 100 meters.
On the caseback, where the flat sapphire crystal shows the IWC caliber 69385, automatic with column wheel and 46 hours of autonomy when fully wound (focusing on robustness rather than pure performance), a double writing is inserted on the outermost part which celebrates the partnership. It’s a bit “old school” but it’s all in all acceptable and well contextualized. The new IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Edition Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team has a price list of 8,450 Euros, higher than a similar 41 mm model with the same technical characteristics, excluding titanium. It’s perfect if you love the genre while the double strap offers a double personality, very sporty or sober in the standard configuration but with a typically “Motorsport” personality whatever the angle.