BY JOVAN KRSTEVSKI
If you haven’t been following the space news, the Polaris Dawn mission is a huge leap forward in commercial space exploration, aiming to achieve the first commercial spacewalk with an all-civilian crew. It is the first of three flights that billionaire Jared Isaacman, founder of Draken International and Shift4 Payments, purchased from SpaceX in 2022 to launch his human spaceflight effort known as the Polaris Program. At the time of writing, the Polaris Dawn mission has been delayed due to a safety review by federal regulators after a failed landing attempt of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. In any case, to commemorate this historic mission, each crew member will wear a specially designed timepiece from IWC Schaffhausen.
IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition “Polaris Dawn” (Ref. IW389111) pays tribute to this historic mission and humankind’s impulse to explore the vastness of the universe.
Appropriately, the dial is a deep space-blue, speckled with stars to capture the essence of the vast universe, and includes subtle details like the Polaris Dawn mission logo. It comes in a case made from white ceramic, sizing at 44.5mm.
The soon-to-be astronaut watch is powered by the IWC-manufactured Calibre 69380 automatic chronograph movement, offering a power reserve of 46 hours, the movement features 242 components. Each of the four watches also has a titanium case back engraved with the name of a Polaris Dawn crew member, turning these pieces into personal mementos of the mission.
Once the mission is complete, the watches will be auctioned at Christie’s in New York, with all proceeds benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a cause close to the hearts of the Polaris Dawn team.
