Luxury watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen is taking precision engineering beyond Earth’s atmosphere with a new timepiece designed specifically for human spaceflight. In partnership with aerospace company Vast, the team developing the world’s first commercial space station, Haven-1, the brand has unveiled the Pilot’s Venturer Vertical Drive—a watch built for life in orbit.
This marks the latest evolution in a collaboration that began last year and is now moving from concept to reality, with the timepiece officially receiving space qualification from Vast for use aboard Haven-1.
A Watch Engineered For Orbit
The Pilot’s Venturer Vertical Drive has been designed with astronauts at its core, addressing one of space travel’s most fundamental challenges: time itself.
In orbit, astronauts experience around 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours, making natural time cues irrelevant. To solve this, the watch displays mission reference time in a 24-hour format, incorporating both GMT and UTC, ensuring crews remain synchronised with Earth-based operations.
This functionality is critical not only for mission coordination, but also for maintaining psychological structure and routine during long-duration spaceflight.
As IWC Schaffhausen continues to push the boundaries of traditional horology, the brand describes the watch as a tool for the “next space age,” reflecting its long heritage in aviation-inspired design and precision engineering.
Designed For Microgravity
Unlike traditional pilot’s watches, the Vertical Drive has been engineered specifically for microgravity environments, where movement is three-dimensional and conventional ergonomics no longer apply.
The compact design ensures astronauts can operate it easily in space, where efficiency, durability, and clarity are essential. Every detail has been considered to support functionality in environments where even simple tasks require adaptation.
With spacecraft orbiting Earth roughly every 90 minutes, astronauts depend entirely on precise timekeeping systems to organise work, rest, and communication windows.
A Partnership Pushing Space Innovation Forward
IWC Schaffhausen CEO Chris Grainger-Herr described the collaboration with Vast as a natural progression for the brand, rooted in its aviation heritage and focus on precision mechanics.
He explained that the goal was to “push the limits and come up with something ingenious,” positioning the watch as a symbol of innovation at the intersection of horology and space exploration.
Vast’s lead astronaut, Andrew Feustel, highlighted the significance of the partnership within the rapidly expanding commercial space sector, noting the unprecedented level of investment and capability now being directed toward human spaceflight.
He also emphasised the importance of timekeeping in orbit, where astronauts lack any natural sense of day or night.
“We live by the clock in space. The challenge is that we don’t have any natural sense of time during the day, because we see 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24-hour period.”
Feustel added that while watches have been used in space before, this collaboration represents a new milestone in functionality:
“This is the first time we’ve seen a company purposely create a functional interface that allows a person working in space to operate a watch effectively.”
The Future Of Commercial Space Living
The Pilot’s Venturer Vertical Drive is more than a timepiece—it represents a shift in how everyday human tools are being redesigned for life beyond Earth.
As Vast prepares Haven-1 to become the world’s first commercial space station, partnerships like this highlight how consumer and aerospace technologies are converging to support the next era of space habitation.
From precision horology to orbital engineering, the collaboration signals a future where design is increasingly shaped by environments beyond our planet.
