IWC Partners With F1 Icon Lewis Hamilton For Cool New Chronograph

Start your engines in style.

Lewis Hamilton’s speed on the racetracks turns heads as a Formula 1 champion, his style off the track is equally eye-catching, and there’s now a near-perfect watch that seamlessly blends the two — complete with Hamilton’s own distinctive input.

IWC just announced the Portugieser Tourbillon Rétrograde Chronograph, designed in partnership with the seven-time F1 champion and IWC brand ambassador. Suffice to say, the latest timepiece from the luxury Swiss watchmaker is Hamilton-approved.

The handsome 43.5mm timepiece is limited to just 44 pieces in a nod to Hamilton’s racing number, and was developed over the course of two years with Hamilton.

The driver’s love for IWC goes deep, the watchmaker said, but Hamilton’s “comprehensive knowledge of mechanical watches” ramped the partnership up several notches, IWC noted.

“Lewis knew exactly what he wanted and brought excellent ideas to the table,” said IWC Chief Design Officer Christian Knoop. “The result is a timepiece that combines his unerring sense of aesthetics and love of bold colors with some of the finest watchmaking technology ever developed in Schaffhausen.”

Central to the watch is an eye-catching teal dial and teal textile strap, but the details underneath the hood, so to speak, of this IWC timepiece are equally important.

It’s driven by an IWC-manufactured 89900 calibre movement, while the dial also features Hamilton’s panther-like logo.

The centerpiece of the dial is the flying hacking minute tourbillon at 6-o’clock, a 56-part individual mechanism that can be stopped down to the second (and every second counts in the world of Formula 1).

A counter at 12-o’clock also displays both hours and minutes at once. Each detail is carefully considered, and carries on the fine partnership developed by Hamilton and IWC (it’s the third watch designed by the company and the driver-turned-style-icon since 2014).

It bears repeating that only 44 of these timepieces are hitting the market, a rarified air befitting a racing champion and a modern legend.