This Watch Brand Is Fast on Its Way to Winning 2026

No other brand impressed as much at Watches and Wonders.

White IWC chronograph watch with blue dial, silver hands, and white rubber strap against a dark gradient background.

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By Johnny Brayson

Published April 21, 2026

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Updated April 22, 2026

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At Watches and Wonders Geneva this year, I saw countless amazing watches from dozens of brands.

But there was one brand that stood out to me as the overall winner of the show.

Watches and Wonders Geneva: Rolex, Grand Seiko and dozens of other heavy hitters gather in Switzerland every year to release their biggest watches. Catch up on all the new novelties.

IWC Schaffhausen not only had the most impressive booth at Geneva’s Palexpo (the brand transformed its space into a virtual space station with Disneyland-like attention to detail), but it also offered the most impressive lineup of novelties from top to bottom.

Two white wristwatches with blue dials and white straps, one showing the front and the other the back. — IWC launched an endless stream of bangers this year, like this Pilot’s Chronograph Le Petit Prince in white ceramic.

While many brands focus on a single theme at Watches and Wonders, sometimes boiled down to a single watch, IWC launched a whopping 17 new references at the show across five categories. Although their releases were somewhat all over the map, astoundingly, all can be considered hits in their own right, and any one of these five categories could have served as the brand’s sole flagship release in a normal year.

To display just how impressive IWC’s 2026 is shaping up to be, here’s a rundown of the brand’s five major launch categories at this year’s Watches and Wonders.

To infinity, and beyond

Black dial IWC Schaffhausen Vertical Drive Venturer watch with white strap on a dark gradient background. — The Venturer Vertical Drive is IWC’s first watch built explicitly for space travel.

Arguably, the flagship among flagships was IWC’s new space watch, the Pilot’s Venturer Vertical Drive, which is the brand’s first watch created specifically for human spaceflight. Developed in tandem with Vast, the company building the first commercial space station, the Venturer Vertical Drive features a case made from a mix of zirconium oxide ceramic and IWC’s proprietary Ceratanium to survive the temperature fluctuations and extreme shocks of space travel.

It was also designed specifically for astronauts to be able to use while wearing gloves. Instead of a crown, it features a novel system for winding the watch and setting the time by turning the bezel, with a rocker switch on the left side of the case that adjusts the time-setting mode. There’s also a 24-hour hand for tracking mission time, since it’s impossible to distinguish between day and night in space.

The watch has been thoroughly tested by Vast and is approved for human spaceflight by the company.

Black dial IWC Schaffhausen Vertical Drive Venturer watch with white hour and minute hands, blue second hand, date display, and white strap.

IWC Pilot’s Venturer Vertical Drive

Specs

Case Size	44.4mm
Movement	IWC Cal. 32722 automatic GMT
Water Resistance	100m

$28,200 at IWC

All of the lume

Back in 2024, then-IWC ambassador Lewis Hamilton was spotted wearing a prototype of a fully lumed Big Pilot’s Perpetual Calendar made of a new material called Ceralume.

Blue-glowing wristwatch with multiple dials and a textured strap against a dark background. — The Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Ceralume is entirely lumed save for the crown and portions of the caseback.

Now, two years later, that watch is ready for public consumption, and it is totally insane. The watch’s white case is made from IWC’s proprietary Ceralume, which is a mixture of ceramic and Super-LumiNova powders whose particles have been ground down to the exact same size and mixed together perfectly to create a totally homogenous glowing ceramic.

To complement the glow of the case, IWC lumed everything on the dial — and I mean everything, the dial is completely white and almost illegible in the daytime — and fitted the watch with a white rubber strap fully impregnated with lume. Even a medallion on the movement’s rotor, visible through the caseback, is lumed.

The result is the most luminous watch in existence, and it’s as fun as it is ludicrously ambitious.

White wristwatch with textured strap, multiple subdials, and a silver crown on the right side.

IWC Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Ceralume

Specs

Case Size	46.5mm
Movement	IWC Cal. 52616 automatic perpetual calendar
Water Resistance	100m

$76,300 at IWC Schaffhausen

Turning back time

While arguably best known for its pilot’s watches, IWC is also a master of the perpetual calendar. This is a brand that, at Watches and Wonders 2024, gave us the “Eternal Calendar” with a moonphase complication accurate to a ridiculous 45 million years.

This year, the brand didn’t go quite as crazy with its new perpetual calendars, but it did create a new movement that’s a whole lot more practical for everyday use.

The new Perpetual Calendar ProSet models are powered by the new Cal. 82665 automatic movement, which allows for setting of the perpetual calendar complications in both directions. Normally on a perpetual calendar, only forward adjustments can be made. Go too far ahead when setting the date, and you may need to visit a watchmaker to remedy your mistake.

Close-up of a silver watch movement with blue calendar and moon phase dials, held by tweezers on a dark reflective surface. — The new ProSet movement solves the biggest issue with perpetual calendars.

With the ProSet system, you can make adjustments forward and backward by turning the crown in both directions. There are no pushers, everything is adjusted through the crown, making this arguably the most user-friendly perpetual calendar on the market.

IWC has debuted the ProSet system in a trio of Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendars: one in 18-carat 5N gold with an olive green dial, and two Le Petit Prince models with sunburst blue dials in stainless steel and white ceramic, respectively.

Silver metal bracelet watch with blue dial featuring multiple subdials and moon phase indicator.

IWC Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar ProSet Le Petit Prince

Specs

Case Size	42mm
Movement	IWC Cal. 82665 automatic perpetual calendar
Water Resistance	100m

$38,800 at IWC

The prodigal prince returns

Silver IWC Mark XX automatic watch with blue dial, white numerals, gold hands, date window, and blue rubber strap. — The new Mark XX Le Petit Prince in steel.

One of IWC’s most beloved collections over the past two decades is its Le Petit Prince collection, a collaboration with the family of the late French author and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The watches have all featured a beautiful midnight blue sunburst dial and a depiction of the titular Little Prince from the beloved novella on the caseback.

To mark 20 years of the partnership, IWC is celebrating the Little Prince in more grand fashion than ever before with a whopping nine new references.

Four IWC wristwatches with blue dials, two with stainless steel bracelets and two with blue rubber straps, on a dark background. — Four of IWC’s nine new Le Petit Prince models.

This includes the two aforementioned perpetual calendars, two Mark XX Pilot’s Watches in steel and red gold, a Pilot’s Watch 36 in steel, two steel Pilot’s Chronographs in 41 and 42mm, the first-ever Portofino Le Petit Prince and my personal favorite, a Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Le Petit Prince in white ceramic.

The combination of the classic Le Petit Prince midnight blue dial juxtaposed with a white ceramic case and rubber strap is to die for. It’s just such a gorgeous, clean-looking design that I am quickly becoming obsessed with. This model is far from IWC’s headliner this year, but it’s my personal favorite of the bunch.

white chronograph wristwatch with blue dial, white numerals, and white rubber strap.

IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Le Petit Prince White Ceramic

Specs

Case Size	41.9mm
Movement	IWC Cal. 69381 automatic chronograph
Water Resistance	100m

$12,900 at IWC

New Ingenieurs, ’cause why not?

Finally, IWC launched five new references for its popular Ingenieur sports watch, because what would Watches and Wonders be without some new takes on the Genta classic?

There are two new 35mm references, one in steel with a blue dial borrowed from the 40mm version, the other in steel with a red gold, diamond-set bezel, making it the first gem-set model of the reborn Ingenieur. Then there’s a new flagship for the series in the form of a 41mm model in full red gold with an olive green dial and a flying tourbillon at 6:00.

Green wristwatch with gold accents and a textured dial on a matching geometric green background. — The new Ingenieur Ceramic introduces a new ceramic shade to IWC: Dark Olive Green.

More interesting to most people is a follow-up to last year’s 42mm black ceramic Ingenieur in a new shade of ceramic for the brand: dark olive green. It’s shaping up to be quite the sleeper.

Also entering serious sleeper territory is the new Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar 41 in full titanium. With its gray dial and tonal subdials, it’s a monochromatic stunner combining IWC’s most acclaimed design and best-known complication in a lightweight, techy package.

Silver IWC Schaffhausen wristwatch with a metal link bracelet and multiple subdials on the face.

IWC Ingenieur Perpetual Calendar 41 Titanium

Specs

Case Size	41.6mm
Movement	IWC Cal. 82600 automatic perpetual calendar
Water Resistance	100m

$44,000 at IWC

About the Author:

Johnny Brayson is an editor at Gear Patrol mostly covering watches. He enjoys watches that are packed with blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em details and believes nearly every watch could stand to be a tad smaller.

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