September 2025: In a world-first partnership, Swiss watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen has announced its role as the Official Timekeeper of aerospace company Vast, the team behind Haven-1 – the world’s first commercial space station. The state-of-the-art, human-centric station is set to launch as early as 2026, ushering in a new era of space exploration.
This collaboration aims to enhance the durability and performance of mechanical watches on Earth, while extending their reliability to the harsh environment of space. It also marks a natural evolution for IWC, which began its pioneering work in aviation almost a century ago and has already flown timepieces on nine space missions.
Unlike the International Space Station, which is reaching the end of its lifetime, Vast is pioneering a new chapter: a human-centric station designed, built and operated entirely by a private company. CEO Max Haot said: “We’re building the most innovative space station in the universe. This isn’t an artist’s rendering – this is the actual design, being executed and built right now.”
For the first time, IWC will design experimental timekeeping technology specifically for space, with prototypes undergoing the same rigorous testing as hardware bound for Vast missions, including Haven Demo and Haven-1. Discussing the partnership, IWC CEO Chris Grainger-Herr described: “Watches have already flown on nine space missions, so this felt like a natural fit. At IWC, we thrive on challenges like this – pushing timekeeping into a whole new frontier. During future long-duration missions, a mechanical watch showing Earth time can also be the object that emotionally connects astronauts to their home.”
Before Haven-1’s debut, Vast is readying Haven Demo – an in-orbit testbed launching later this year – a critical step toward bringing permanent private space habitats online. Haven-1 itself will host up to four astronauts for stays of 30 days, giving crews access to the Haven-1 Lab: a unique platform to conduct scientific research, technology development, and in-space manufacturing that will benefit life on Earth and support long-term exploration of space.
Haot explained that timekeeping is fundamental to training and operating in space, saying: “To have the chance to work with IWC, a company that shares our obsession with precision and design – is so exciting.” He continued: “Both Vast and IWC master complexity and make it human and intuitive. That’s what excites us about this partnership – it’s about shaping life in space in a way that looks and feels inspiring.”
The partnership fuses innovation in design, engineering and human ambition, marking the beginning of a new chapter in how we live – and keep time – beyond Earth.
Notes to Editors
ABOUT IWC SCHAFFHAUSEN
IWC Schaffhausen is a leading Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen in the north-eastern part of Switzerland. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant to sports watches. Founded in 1868 by the American watchmaker and engineer Florentine Ariosto Jones, IWC is known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, combining the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes.
Over its more than 150-year history, IWC has earned a reputation for creating professional instrument watches and functional complications, especially chronographs and calendars, which are ingenious, robust, and easy for customers to use. A pioneer in the use of titanium and ceramics, IWC today specialises in highly engineered watch cases manufactured from advanced materials, such as coloured ceramics, Ceratanium®, and titanium aluminide.
A leader in sustainable luxury watchmaking, IWC sources materials responsibly and takes action to minimise its impact on the environment. Along the pillars of transparency, circularity, and responsibility, the brand crafts timepieces built to last for generations and continuously improves every element of how it manufactures, distributes, and services its products in the most responsible way. IWC also partners with organisations that work globally to support children and young people.
ABOUT VAST
Founded in 2021 by Jed McCaleb, Vast is developing humanity’s next-generation space stations and pioneering the path to long-term living and thriving in space. Haven-1, scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station, is currently in development and is expected to launch in 2026. Vast is also developing Haven-2, the proposed successor to the International Space Station (ISS), designed to serve NASA’s Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) program as a micro-gravity laboratory in space. Vast’s long-term ambition is to create artificial gravity habitations that enable humans to live in space, reaffirming its commitment to ensuring a spacefaring future for all.
23 September 2025
