Pieces of the action: how cinema became a showcase for watchmakers

“If you’re pretending to speak you have to say, ‘Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb,’ all over again . . . that’s the miming,” says Chris Grainger-Herr, chief executive of IWC Schaffhausen. He is recalling his experience on the set of the upcoming film F1.

He is yet to learn whether his cameo has made the final cut. But the brand will have a role in director Joseph Kosinski’s motorsport drama on its release in June.

The film features Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a driver who returns to the sport to race on the APX GP team alongside Joshua Pearce, played by Damson Idris. IWC partnered with the Apple production and features as a sponsor of this fictional F1 team. The watchmaker’s branding appears on the cars, driver race suits, helmets and gloves, the team uniforms and in the garage. It lent more than 120 watches for the cast to wear.

IWC is marking this partnership with the launch of six new watch designs at Watches and Wonders in Geneva, where its booth will feature cars, camera technology and props from the film. The movie is the latest in a long line of big-screen outings for high-end watches.

New pieces from IWC include the Pilot’s Watch Performance Chronograph 41, featuring a gold case with sapphire case back, a black ceramic tachymeter bezel and a black lacquered dial. A prototype of this will appear on the wrist of Idris’s character in F1. A limited edition stainless steel Ingenieur Automatic 40 with a green dial is inspired by a design worn by Pitt’s character. IWC collaborated with Pitt and Cloister Watch Company, which specialises in creating pieces from vintage watches, to customise two vintage Ingenieur SL Reference 1832 pieces for use as props. Tweaks included reducing the height of the watch.

IWC Ingenieur Automatic 40

Pilot Watch Performance Chronograph 41

Grainger-Herr says it was a “no brainer” for IWC, which previously worked with Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer on Top Gun: Maverick (2022), to partner with the film given the brand’s background in motorsport. It has been the official engineering partner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team since 2013. Driver Lewis Hamilton, a producer on the film, was an IWC brand ambassador from 2013 to 2024.

“What really was a deciding factor for us is the level of authenticity that Joe and the team were after in this production,” says Grainger-Herr. “It’s really pushing the boundaries in terms of the degree of realism as a racing movie.” The film was shot at real Grand Prix weekends.

Authenticity is also key for Nicholas Biebuyck, heritage director at Tag Heuer, when lending watches to productions. “I don’t want someone who famously wore a Breitling or a Rolex to all of a sudden be wearing a vintage Heuer because we paid for a placement,” he says.

While Tag Heuer has partnered on films such as The Fall Guy (2024), which stars its ambassador Ryan Gosling, Biebuyck says the brand normally lends watches for free. To support the growth of this activity, he says its archive is split into “benchmark new old stock” — untouched watches used for museum exhibitions, research and analytical purposes — and pieces that can be worn and for which there are spare parts.

On one occasion a watch was broken during a production. “I won’t name names but . . . they tried to superglue the crystal back into the watch and in the process destroyed the dial,” says Biebuyck. “So when it came back, I had to have a nice little conversation with them and explain that they managed to do £5,000 worth of damage.” The production’s insurance covered the cost.

Biebuyck says films are a great way to share the brand’s heritage. He lent three vintage Heuer Carreras for Barbie (2023), which Gosling wore simultaneously in one scene. Thanks to its presence in the film, the gold-plated Carrera reference 110.515 CHN is now nicknamed “the Ken” by collectors after Gosling’s character, Biebuyck says. “We get watchmaking into popular culture, but then on the other side we get popular culture bleeding back into the watches.”

Grainger-Herr says a watch is an “emotional product” and a film can be important in presenting “a relatable story”. “We can talk about technical characteristics all day, but it’s when you see the action, the actors, the characters, that that feeling of what that represents really means something and comes to life,” he says. “That’s why association in marketing is so key to our space in the luxury industry.”

Grainger-Herr declines to discuss the finances of the deal. He says that while there was dialogue about how IWC’s branding was applied — and it was important for IWC to have consistency with its branding on the cars in Formula 1 — ultimately the portrayal was at the discretion of the producers and director. “It’s very important in terms of movies not looking like an ad campaign,” he says.

Raynald Aeschlimann, president and chief executive of Omega, says his brand lends pieces to “bring value” to a production. However, big-screen exposure benefits the company, too. When Omega features in a high-profile film and promotes its role, he says there is a 20 per cent rise in footfall in its stores.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Omega’s partnership with the Bond franchise. “The magic about James Bond, after all these movies, is that genuinely the Omega is the watch on the wrist of James Bond — and it’s being sold as such because it’s now so closely identified with his character,” says Aeschlimann.