IWC’s purple Formula 1 chronograph pays tribute to Singapore after dark
4 min
Singapore’s Formula 1 weekend has always looked different.
Held beneath floodlights on the Marina Bay Street Circuit, the race transforms the city into a nocturnal spectacle of speed, heat and saturated colour. It is this distinctive atmosphere — and one of Singapore’s most important natural symbols — that has shaped IWC Schaffhausen’s latest motorsport-inspired watch.
The Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team Edition introduces a deep purple dial to IWC’s Pilot’s Watches collection for the first time.
Rather than drawing directly from the race cars, the colour references the Vanda Miss Joaquim, the orchid recognised as Singapore’s national flower. Its vivid purple is paired with numerals, hour markers and luminous hands in the turquoise-green shade closely associated with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team.
A matching purple rubber strap completes what is easily the most colourful team watch IWC has produced during its long-running Formula 1 partnership.
A team watch made for the paddock
IWC has been the official engineering partner of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team since 2013, with dedicated team watches forming part of the relationship since 2022.
These editions are intended to be worn by mechanics, engineers and other team personnel trackside, as well as staff at the team’s headquarters in Brackley, England. That working role helps explain why the watches tend to prioritise low weight, durability and legibility rather than simply adding Formula 1 branding to an existing luxury timepiece.
For the new reference, IW388121, IWC has selected a 41mm case made from Grade 5 titanium. The metal is approximately half the weight of steel, resistant to corrosion and valued for its strength-to-weight ratio.
Its connection with motorsport is functional as well as thematic. Titanium alloys are used in Formula 1 components subjected to considerable mechanical and thermal loads. Most visibly, the protective Halo structure positioned above a driver’s cockpit is also manufactured from a high-strength titanium alloy.
IWC has given the case a brushed finish, retaining titanium’s understated grey appearance and allowing the purple dial and green details to carry the visual impact.
At 14.5mm thick, this is still a substantial sports chronograph. The reduced weight of the titanium case should, however, make it noticeably easier to wear over a full day than an equivalent steel model.
Familiar engineering beneath a new dial
Behind the colour is a familiar and proven mechanical package.
The watch is powered by IWC’s automatic 69385 calibre, an in-house chronograph movement built around a traditional column wheel. It operates at 28,800 vibrations per hour and provides a 46-hour power reserve.
Its chronograph layout places the elapsed-minute display at 12 o’clock and running seconds at six. The vertical arrangement has been a defining feature of IWC’s Pilot’s Watch chronographs for decades, keeping the displays clear despite the amount of information presented on the dial.
A combined day-and-date window sits at three o’clock, giving the watch additional everyday usefulness beyond its stopwatch function.
The movement is decorated with Geneva stripes and circular graining and can be viewed through the sapphire crystal caseback. Water resistance is rated to 10 bar, equivalent to approximately 100 metres.
The front is protected by convex sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment on both sides. IWC also secures the glass against displacement caused by sudden changes in air pressure, a feature associated with the collection’s aviation origins.
The purple rubber strap is fitted with IWC’s EasX-CHANGE system, allowing it to be removed without conventional tools. A titanium pin buckle maintains the lightweight construction.
The fourth Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS team watch
The purple chronograph is the fourth official team watch produced through the partnership.
The series began at the 2022 Miami Grand Prix with a titanium Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 distinguished by PETRONAS-green details. A more performance-focused Ceratanium chronograph followed at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, complete with a black ceramic tachymeter bezel.
In 2025, IWC changed direction with the slimmer, three-hand Pilot’s Watch Mark XX Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team Edition.
The new Singapore-inspired chronograph returns to the original 41mm format but gives it an unexpectedly expressive identity. It also arrives alongside a new Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS collection from team kit supplier adidas, extending the purple colour story beyond the watch.
For collectors, the appeal lies in that balance. The architecture of the watch is recognisably IWC: practical, engineered and highly legible. The dial, meanwhile, is considerably more adventurous than the black, blue and green treatments typically associated with modern pilot’s watches.
It is a tribute to Singapore that avoids obvious images of the skyline or circuit. Instead, IWC has used colour to capture some of the energy of Formula 1’s original night race — and created one of the partnership’s most distinctive watches in the process.
Fact box
- Model: IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team
- Reference: IW388121
- Case: Grade 5 titanium
- Diameter: 41mm
- Thickness: 14.5mm
- Dial: Purple with PETRONAS-green numerals, markers and luminous details
- Crystal: Convex sapphire with anti-reflective coating on both sides
- Movement: IWC-manufactured automatic calibre 69385
- Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, chronograph and day-date display
- Frequency: 28,800 vibrations per hour, or 4Hz
- Power reserve: 46 hours
- Jewels: 33
- Water resistance: 10 bar, approximately 100 metres
- Strap: Purple rubber with EasX-CHANGE system
- Buckle: Titanium pin buckle
Mirzaian is a senior director within CBRE’s Development NSW business, operating across the company’s Western Sydney and North Sydney offices
Singapore’s Formula 1 weekend has always looked different. Held beneath floodlights on the Marina Bay Street Circuit, the race transforms the city into a nocturnal spectacle of speed, heat and saturated colour. It is this distinctive atmosphere — and one of Singapore’s most important natural symbols — that has shaped IWC Schaffhausen’s latest motorsport-inspired watch. …
Continue reading “IWC’s purple Formula 1 chronograph pays tribute to Singapore after dark”
SHEIN’s Hong Kong IPO wiped a $4.4 billion obligation from its books, but the fast-fashion giant still faces a payout of up to $3.5 billion to early investors.
3 min
Companies typically go public to raise money to supercharge growth. Fast-fashion giant Shein has another motivation.
The company’s initial public offering in Hong Kong this week is allowing it to avoid paying out billions to early investors.
If Shein hadn’t sold shares by the end of the year, the company would have been required to fork out nearly $4.4 billion in cash to holders of its convertible redeemable preferred shares. With the IPO, the $17.3 billion in preferred shares was converted to ordinary equity, and that obligation was wiped off the books.
But Shein was still on the hook for another payment. Holders of those preferred shares were entitled to a payout of billions more, in part because the company’s valuation has fallen from its peak. That payout came to nearly $3.5 billion in cash, according to regulatory filings.
The retailer on Monday priced its shares at 48.56 Hong Kong dollars each, equivalent to about $6.20 and near the middle of the range of HK$47.60 and HK$49.50 it provided last week.
The company pressed ahead with its IPO despite slowing growth and regulatory headwinds in the U.S. and European Union. Shein priced its IPO at a valuation of around $26 billion, roughly a quarter of the $98.2 billion valuation it achieved in a funding round in 2022.
Shein started selling its wares in the U.S. around 2012 and shot to popularity during the pandemic when more people shopped online. Its supply-chain prowess and vast range of styles at affordable prices made the brand a favorite among many U.S. consumers. It showed other retailers, including Amazon.com, that consumers were willing to wait more than a week for their online purchases to be delivered—if the price was right. But rivals soon emerged, such as Temu, which sells more products apart from apparel.
Shein’s business model of selling massive amounts of cheap goods lost some of its shine as more countries started imposing tariffs on small packages. The U.S. removed a trade exemption that allowed packages valued at or below $800 to enter the country duty-free, and the EU has introduced a €3 (about $3.50) customs duty on imports of low-value parcels.
Shein has worked toward its IPO for years, and the looming $4.4 billion obligation wasn’t the only reason it went public. But the threat of the big payout on Dec. 31 was certainly a part of its reason to press ahead, said Jianggan Li, founder and chief executive of Momentum Works, a research advisory firm based in Singapore.
“Complete the listing before then,” said Li, “and a very large liability comes off the balance sheet.”
While that liability will now be off its books with a successful IPO, Shein said it was saddled with another bill: the roughly $3.5 billion it owed its early investors upon going public.
That amount includes $1.3 billion that Shein had to pay several late-stage pre-IPO investors who had been guaranteed a cash payout at an 8% or 12% annual return, and up to $2.2 billion in compensation for the fall in the company’s valuation in the period after they made their investments. The $2.2 billion was a projection based on the lower end of the offer price range, or HK$47.60 per share, so the total bill will likely be smaller than $3.5 billion. The exact amount has yet to be disclosed by the company.
Notably, the amount it owes investors is more than the roughly $1.7 billion the company raised in the IPO. The company said it was paying the funds to its investors out of cash it has on hand.
The investors entitled to the payments include entities linked to HSG, formerly known as Sequoia China, Boyu Capital, Tiger Global, General Atlantic, Thrive Capital and others.
“What the IPO really does here is resolve the capital-structure overhang,” Li said. “It gives investors liquidity, terminates those preferred-share rights and cleans up obligations created when Shein raised money at much higher valuations.”
Shein could have kicked the can down the road by renegotiating terms with its investors, he said: “Shein is not taking the cheapest way out of its old financing obligations. It is taking the cleaner way out.”
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Singapore’s Formula 1 weekend has always looked different. Held beneath floodlights on the Marina Bay Street Circuit, the race transforms the city into a nocturnal spectacle of speed, heat and saturated colour. It is this distinctive atmosphere — and one of Singapore’s most important natural symbols — that has shaped IWC Schaffhausen’s latest motorsport-inspired watch. …
Continue reading “IWC’s purple Formula 1 chronograph pays tribute to Singapore after dark”
