IWC Schaffhausen partnered with British adventurer David de Rothschild who crossed the Pacific in 2010 in “Plastiki” – a unique 12 ton 60 foot catamaran crafted from 12,500 plastic soda bottles and other recycled materials. He started his journey in San Francisco crossing the Pacific and ending in Sydney. His mission was to raise global awareness of the dire condition of our oceans partly due to the enormous amount of plastic pellets (100 million tons derived from 2.5% of all the plastic ever made since the 1950’s) polluting the Northern Pacific.
To commemorate the monumental success of David de Rothschild and crew’s success, IWC Schaffhausen has unveiled the latest edition to its Ingenieur Watch Collection, a limited special edition Ingenieuer Automatic Mission Earth Edition “Plastiki” – Reference 3236 – Limited to only 1000 pieces. The automatic mechanical IWC Caliber 80110 is housed within a sturdy 46 mm Stainless Steel case as well as a soft inner case to enhance anti-magnetic qualities. An automatic watch requires no winding via the crown, but rather an oscillating weight moves back and forth with the gentle swinging motion of ones arm and winds the mainspring. Engraved on the Stainless steel case back is an image depicting the “Plastiki”s voyage as well as the watch number out of 1000. The bright blue rubber strap compliments the blue accents on the hands and indexes as well as the seconds hand.
This is not the first IWC timepiece to commemorate the “Plastiki”, last year IWC unveiled the Ingenieur Automatic MissionEarth Edition ‘Adventure Ecology” Watch which was worn by David de Rothschild throughout his voyage.