Whelp. IWC just won the lume wars

Me: Hey, guys! Check this out!

My Family:

I think Bell & Ross pulled off the full lume better. For some reason the lume color they chose makes the watch look like a plastic toy.

Not even lumed pushers, are they even trying?

Lol I knew someone would say that

Some of my cereal box toys in the 80s had better "lume" than this...

Cryptonite

Bell and Ross did something similar a while back.

The Bell & Ross BR-X5 Green Lume

The more lume the better.

I'll pass thank you

Bring them back I will start eating it again 🙄😂👍

So, jokes aside, I’m actually interested in how or what the case is made of. Is it just a plastic (aka bio ceramic, ceramic, carbon resin whatever) or more complicated process of protecting a layer of lume with a DLC clear coat over a sainless steel base…or am I just making that up?

Why would you want a coating? It would just be one sort of carbon-like polymer on top of another carbon-like polymer, no?

I got carpal tunnel just looking at it.

Oh I have no actual clue. I just imagined you’d have to protect this layer of lume that’s essentially been painted onto the stainless steel with some sort of other layer…i think we’re thinking the same thing.

I'm guessing this won't be a favorite of special forces personnel.

See, I knew there was a more realistic solution than the complicated nonsense I had rattling around in my melon. Thank you.

I'm so into this! IWC has had a great couple of years, I can't wait to get to an IWC boutique as soon as possible

I hope they give out sunglasses with this one. Maybe it's time for new CEO.

Logical answers, pushers need to be contrasting non lume color otherwise they would just blend into everything else

So they made this but for grown men

That's a whole lot of sense making for a fully lumed watch case. Although they could've lumed the actual pusher and not the collar around it, or vice versa.

At that point they ran out of budget for additional lume 🤣

The movement better be lumed when you turn the watch over.

I wonder if they have issues with super hard yet comparatively brittle ceramic pushers properly securing with a press fit without risk of cracking. Stainless is malleable enough to press fit/compression fit no problem.

Ceramic is much harder than SS, but hardness does not equal toughness.

I know that their titanium watches also have the same stainless pushers which a few people are also turned off by.

Grown men need unicorn shiny wrist trinkets too…

That’s why we’re all here, right? 🍻

Ironically they still don’t lume their numerals

Honestly, I was very close to buying the Petronas Pilot Chrono 41 last year when I was in Tokyo (the exchange rate and lack of taxes really enables impulse purchases 😁), but then I saw how limited the lume was and was like “aww … maybe I’ll think about it” and never got back to the boutique. They lost at least one sale with their refusal to lume their dial properly!

I have a couple IWCs and yeah the lume application on the dial is definitely sparse. That said, the hands are THICC and the legibility at night is fine. Won’t blow anyone’s socks off for sure. I picked mine up because I love the pilot/fleiger aesthetic and (lume and price point aside) no one does it better.

Yeah, I’m sure what they use is sufficient for legibility. Luming the cardinal directions and hands is plenty 99.99999999% of the time. For me, though, lume application is about the effect/aesthetic as much as it is about legibility. It’s a lot of fun when the watch with the lume “on” looks cool. Going from the really cool daytime face of the Petronas Pilot Chrono 41 to an underwhelming night time face was enough of a let down to give me a pause and interrupt an impulse buy.

And hard agree: if you want that pilot aesthetic, IWC is hard to beat!

do we know the estimated diameter size of the case?

I have been wanting a Lake Tahoe, but in 40/41 size, but now this lume-y though probably..