IWC Schaffhausen has teamed up with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One driver George Russell (you might have heard of him) on a pair of limited edition Pilot’s watches, and they’re some of my favourite driver collaborations the brand has done to date.
The partnership delivers two models – a Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 and a Pilot’s Watch Automatic 41 – both finished in black zirconium oxide ceramic and dressed with Russell’s signature shade of blue.
It’s a colour that’s become inseparable from the British driver, seen most clearly on his helmet and now carried through the watches’ dials, lume and rubber straps.
Both pieces lean hard into IWC’s long-standing expertise with advanced materials. The cases are crafted from black ceramic, which IWC has worked with since the 1980s, thanks to its light weight and impressive scratch resistance.
On the chronograph, the crown and pushers are made from Ceratanium – IWC’s proprietary material that combines titanium’s lightness with ceramic-like hardness. The automatic model also gets a Ceratanium crown, keeping things consistent across the pair.
The Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 George Russell (Ref. IW389411) measures 41.9 mm across and is powered by IWC’s in-house 69380 calibre. It offers a 46-hour power reserve and features black hands and a black dial, with numerals, indices and Super-LumiNova all glowing in Russell’s distinctive blue. It’s a familiar Pilot’s Chronograph layout, but the colour choice really makes it stand out.
Alongside it sits the Pilot’s Watch Automatic 41 George Russell (Ref. IW328107). This one is slightly cleaner, with a time-and-date display and a 41 mm ceramic case. Inside is the IWC-manufactured 32112 calibre, using a double-pawl winding system to deliver an impressive 120-hour power reserve. Like the chronograph, it uses blue printing and blue lume to tie it directly back to Russell.
Flip either watch over, and you’ll find a titanium case back engraved with the number 63 (Russell’s race number since his karting days).
Both watches come on blue rubber straps, colour-matched to the dial accents and fitted with IWC’s EasX-Change system, so you can swap straps quickly without tools.
The IWC x George Russell collection is available now, each model is limited to 1063 pieces, with the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 (Ref. IW389411) priced at £10,100 (approx. US$14,000) and the Pilot’s Watch Automatic 41 (Ref. IW328107) coming in at £7300 (approx. US$10,000).
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