IWC Schaffhausen Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition “Toto Wolff x Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team”
Cars & motorsport
Vintage & Auctions
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One, and IWC Team Up for Charity
The last available IWC Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Edition “Toto Wolff x Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team” is being auctioned for charity!
By Watchonista
This weekend marks the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the home race for British driver Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes-AMG Petronas. While IWC and Mercedes-AMG have been partners for many years, they have just begun to make an official team watch.
Now, they are following up that incredible release with a more complicated beauty, an auction for the final available model of the Big Pilot’s Perpetual Calendar Edition “Toto Wolff x Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team” with a Ceratanium case and crown and a smoked glass dial.
The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team has had the longest continuous constructor’s championship wins of any F1 team in history. And that is thanks to, in no small part, Team Principal & CEO Toto Wolff. Mr. Wolff has long been seen wearing various IWC models (some one-off prototypes) on and off the racetrack – so it is fitting that IWC commemorate his achievements with a limited-edition piece of his own.
The Toto Wolff x Mercedes-AMG Petronas Perpetual Calendar
Limited to only 100 pieces, the watch is sold out, except for this last example, #50. It starts with the impressive IWC automatic manufacture calibre 52615. Housed in a black Ceratanium case, the dial features the signature Petronas green color. The dial itself is made of smoked glass, which allows the wearer to see the inner mechanical workings of master watchmaker Kurt Klaus’s brilliant movement design.
Eagle-eyed enthusiasts may also notice there is an additional, yet unexpected, color on the watch – a red collar at the base of the crown. As Mr. Wolff explained in a press release: “[O]f course, I had to add a subtle red collar around the crown and pay tribute to our friend and colleague Niki Lauda.” Lauda, a legendary F1 driver himself, was a Non-Executive Chairman of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team until his death in 2019.
IGNITE for Charity
Founded in 2021 by Mercedes-AMG driver Lewis Hamilton and the F1 team – Ignite is a charitable initiative focused on inspiring, educating, and bringing more diversity and inclusivity to the world of motorsport. And to help fund those goals, IWC has donated the very last available piece of this limited edition to Ignite to be auctioned for charity. The watch will be auctioned by Bonhams, the international British auction house, and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Ignite.
Note that the auction will be running from 30/6/2022 15:00 (8am NYC Time) to 7/7/2022 15:00 (8am NYC Time).
Along with the watch, the lucky winner will also receive an opportunity to tour the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Headquarters and Design Center to go behind-the-scenes and see what goes into producing a world-class Formula One racecar. But as if the watch and tour were not enough, the winner will also win a one-on-one Zoom call with Toto Wolff himself. In conjunction with this donation, IWC has also announced that it will be making a yearly donation of €50,000 to the Ignite initiative.
While commenting on the watch and partnership, IWC CEO Chris Grainger-Herr said he was proud to honor “Toto’s ability to create a dynamic team driven by a high-performance culture…[A]nd, once again, join forces with our longstanding motorsport partner in support of a good cause.”
For more information on the auction or to register, interested parties can contact Bonhams.
(Front image: Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One, other images © IWC Schaffhausen)
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