In this episode of On Time, Lex Borrero sits down with Christian from IWC for a conversation about design, engineering, and why the next great watch is always still being built. The headline is about a space watch, but the episode is really about the mindset behind it: a brand trying to respect its history while still making objects that feel genuinely forward-looking.
Christian's path into watches did not begin as a collector. The first IWC that pulled him toward the brand was the Big Pilot, relaunched in 2002. What struck him was the purity of the design, the form-follows-function clarity, and the way the watch expressed a technical idea without losing emotional force. That tension between function and feeling becomes the center of the whole conversation.
A designer before a collector
Christian explains that watches were always part of his daily life, even before collecting was. He remembers wearing a watch from the age of six or seven, but his real obsession was making things. As a child, his schoolbooks were full of drawings and sketches. At home, his father's workshop gave him access to machines, materials, and the habit of building by hand.
By around 12, he already knew he wanted to become a designer, even before he fully understood what that meant. Dieter Rams became an important early reference, not only because of individual products, but because Rams showed how a designer could shape a whole brand language. Christian later studied industrial design in Germany, worked in product design and brand consultancy, and spent time around design cultures that treated products as complete systems rather than isolated objects.
That background matters at IWC because watches are technical objects, but not only technical objects. Christian says that when he entered the watch industry, he first looked at watches through the lens of industrial design. Over time, he realized how emotionally charged they are. They carry brand history, family stories, collector knowledge, and the kind of attachment that ordinary products rarely achieve.
Heritage is a line, not a cage
Lex asks what happens when a designer is asked to revisit a heritage object, especially one with a Gerald Genta signature like the Ingenieur. Christian's answer is that every new watch walks a fine line between the past and the future. It has to remain recognizable as IWC, and recognizable as its collection, while still offering something surprising.
The Ingenieur makes that possible because the 1976 Genta design is so strong. Its lines are powerful enough to hold different sizes, details, complications, colors, and materials without losing the identity of the watch. Christian points to the 2023 rework, where IWC adjusted proportions, improved wearability, added crown protection, and made the watch more distinctive while also improving assembly and production.
That last point is important. In Christian's telling, design is not only what the watch looks like across the table. It is also how it wears, how it is built, and how the object can be produced without compromising the idea. A heritage update succeeds when it makes the design more usable without sanding away the original character.
The ceramic Ingenieur shows the engineering side
The conversation turns technical when Christian describes the ceramic Ingenieur. Rather than using a metal inner container, IWC developed a construction made from three ceramic pieces with gaskets between them, still achieving 100 meters of water resistance. That is not a cosmetic exercise. It is a new way to make the material and case construction serve the design.
This is where Christian pushes back on a simple reading of "form follows function." He does not like the phrase when it places form beneath function. For him, the job is balance. IWC works through integrated development teams where designers and engineers sit close together, trying to make aesthetics, function, and technology resolve into one object.
That balance sets up the space watch. A watch for human space flight cannot be only a styling project, but it also cannot become a purely technical instrument with no brand expression. It has to solve real problems and still look like it belongs to IWC.
A space watch designed from scratch
Christian describes the new IWC space-going watch as the first watch really designed from scratch for human space flight. Historically, many space watches were civilian watches qualified for a mission or a flight. This project starts from a different premise: what should the watch be if it is conceived for that environment from the beginning?
The challenges include material resistance, vibration, pressure, temperature, and human interaction. One of the clearest examples is the crown. A traditional crown can be fiddly, especially when someone is wearing a pressurized space suit. IWC's answer is a new ergonomic system built around a rotating bezel connected to a rocker switch at 9 o'clock. That switch lets the wearer move between functions such as winding, setting the time, and setting a second time zone.
The point is not only that the mechanism is clever. It is that the interface comes from the use case. The watch has to be operable when normal watch interaction is not enough. At the same time, Christian says the aesthetic expression still has to represent IWC: engineered, pure in design, futuristic, and forward-looking.
The future is part of the heritage
One of the strongest ideas in the episode is Christian's reminder that many watches we now treat as vintage were futuristic when they were made. The first IWC Pilot's Watch in 1936 was not a nostalgic object at the time. It was created by people with bold ideas trying to solve for the future in front of them.
That changes how IWC's heritage should be understood. Looking back is useful, but only if it gives the brand confidence to move forward. Christian says his favorite watch is usually not the one already in the collection, but the one coming out in two years. That is where the team's focus, love, and attention are. He describes himself as impatient, constantly seeking improvement and pushing boundaries.
That attitude explains why the space watch matters. It is not just a novelty or a technical brag. It is IWC trying to make the kind of object that future collectors may someday look back on as a sign of what the brand believed mechanical watches could still become.
Better than the Moonwatch?
The thumbnail asks whether this is better than the Moonwatch, but the episode points to a more specific distinction. The Omega Speedmaster earned its place by being selected, tested, and worn in space. IWC's claim is different: this watch is designed for human space flight from the beginning, with its ergonomics, controls, materials, and identity shaped around that purpose.
That does not erase the history of other space watches. It reframes the conversation. If the Moonwatch is the icon of a civilian chronograph proving itself beyond Earth, IWC's new project is about what happens when a modern manufacture starts with the space-flight problem first and then builds the watch around it.
For a brand so tied to engineering, that feels like a natural move. Christian's whole design philosophy comes down to balance: emotion and precision, heritage and surprise, aesthetics and technical problem-solving. The space watch is compelling because it makes that balance visible. It is not just a watch that can go to space. It is a watch trying to explain what IWC thinks the future of tool watches can still be.
