At the Laureus World Sports Awards in Monaco earlier this week, IWC continued its partnership with the Laureus Sport for Good initiative, which supports sports programs worldwide for disadvantaged youth, with the launch of its 13th special-edition timepiece in support of Laureus, this one hailing from the brand’s Aquatimer collection. Here’s this week’s Watch to Watch, the IWC Aquatimer Chronograph Edition “Laureus Sport for Good,” limited to 1,000 pieces.
The watch’s 45-mm case is in vulcanized black rubber-coated stainless steel, framing a dial in “Laureus blue,” a color established for, and used on, previous IWC Laureus editions such as last year’s Pilot’s Watch Mark XVIII model. the central hands are blackened and coated with Super-LumiNova, which is also applied to details on the dial and on the internal/external rotating dive-scale bezel, which operates with IWC’s SafeDive system. The case is water-resistant to 300 meters, with a screw-down crown and nonreflective, convex sapphire crystal over the dial.
Inside the case is IWC’s self-winding Caliber 89365, equipped with a flyback chronograph mechanism (with a 60-second counter on the 12 o’clock subdial), a date display (in a window at 3 o’clock) and a hacking seconds function (on a small seconds subdial at 6 o’clock), and storing a power reserve of 68 hours when fully wound. As in previous Laureus models, this manufacture movement is concealed behind a specially engraved caseback bearing the winning drawing from the annual competition that IWC organizes each year in cooperation with Laureus. This year’s theme was “Time to Learn” and this year’s winner was 15-year-old Melan from Sri Lanka.
The IWC Aquatimer Chronograph Edition “Laureus Sport for Good” is mounted on a Laureus blue rubber strap outfitted with a quick-change system and carries a retail price of $11,700.
