Welcome to Watch Guy Watches, GQ’s monthly curation of high-end timepieces for the true watch nerds among us. This February, IWC’s shock-absorbing watch gets a makeover; Parmigiani combines platinum with a stone-blue dial; Louis Vuitton pulls out all the gem-set stops; and Zenith reissues a classic El Primero in carbon.
Back in 2021, IWC’s engineering division developed a special shock-absorption system called SPRIN-g PROTECT to guard a watch movement from a preposterous 30,000 Gs worth of acceleration. The tech was originally designed for aviators on the Big Pilot’s Watch Shock Absorber XPL. “When a watch suffers an impact, the movement and its components are subjected to high g-forces,” Dr. Lorenz Brunner, IWC’s department manager of research and innovation, told CNA in 2021. If a pilot accidentally hits his watch against a hard surface in the cockpit, for example, accelerations are in the range of 300g to 1,000g.” This watch is prepared for something 30 times as devastating. Now, IWC is putting the technology into the new—deep breath!—Big Pilot’s Watch Shock Absorber XPL Toto Wolff x Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One™ Team. (Conveniently known by the acronym BPWSAXPLTWMAMGPFOT.)
Named in honor of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team’s CEO, the new ref. IW356201, limited to 100 pieces, dressed up the original watch in the PETRONAS team’s black and green colorway. Once again measuring 44mm x 12.6mm in the brand’s signature Ceratanium—an extremely hard yet light mix of titanium and ceramic—it features a green BMG spring and matching rubber strap, while the case and grain-pattern dial are largely black. (Even the in-house cal. 32101, which features a power reserve of 120 hours, is finished in black, and is visible via a sapphire caseback overlaid with Toto Wolff’s signature.)
The watch, of course, features the SPRIN-g PROTECT. The system is based upon a large cantilever spring that surrounds and cushions the movement and dial within the watch case. The spring is made of something called bulk metallic glass, a material with much more elasticity than regular metal.
You might be thinking that $102,000 is quite the sticker price for a time-only watch whose sole claim to fame is that it can take a hit from Mike Tyson keep on tickin’. But that’s precisely the beauty of a Watch-Guy Watch: Within a world of multi-billion-dollar luxury conglomerates developing obsolete, wrist-worn technology whose accuracy is eclipsed by that of a $10 battery-powered knick knack purchased on Amazon is a division whose entire remit is to make even more expensive versions. And if you’re a Watch Guy who loves mechanical things, there’s nothing quite so beautiful as that.
Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Micro-Rotor Platinum in Stone Blue
