You may have heard the news that IWC has released the limited-edition IWC Ingenieur Chronograph Sport Edition "50th Anniversary of Mercedes-AMG" to commemorate, as the name suggests, the golden anniversary of AMG, the performance motoring arm of Mercedes-Benz. The watch will be available in a limited run of 250 pieces and is available at only a small premium over the standard Ingenieur Chronograph Sport.

Under the dial, this watch is equipped with the same movement as the regular production IWC Ingenieur Chronograph Sport or the Portugieser Chronograph, which is the in-house Caliber 89361. An automatic chronograph shared with 68 hours of power reserve, this movement provides flyback functionality , a feature that fits correctly in with the motorsport racing theme as it is used to time successive intervals of time like race children. It has the special hour and minute totalizer as well at 12 o'clock which is intended to make the chronograph reading more intuitive.

One of the differences between this IWC Ingenieur Chronograph Sport Edition "50th Anniversary of Mercedes-AMG" and the other watches equipped with the caliber 89361 is apparent when you look at the case back. Like the original Ingenieur from 1955, the IWC Mercedes-AMG Ingenieur Chronograph Sport is equipped with a soft iron cage that helps make the watch anti-magnetic, although the IWC does not provide concrete figures on how anti-magnetic it really is. In keeping with the motorsport and specifically the AMG theme, the back of the soft iron cage has holes drilled into it in a radial formation to make it look like a brake disc. In addition, the back of the cage is engraved with the words, "Tribute to One Man One Machine." This is in reference to the fact that each engine that is produced by AMG is assembled from scratch by a single AMG mechanic. Personally, I struggle to see the benefit of engraving and drilling into the soft iron cage, and think a solid case back with similar engravings would've been enough. The AMG theme, however, is loud and clear.

The dial is silver plated with a zero-to-sixty-styled index, another of the many motorsport-inspired design changes. On that note, the IWC has said that the color scheme of red, white, and anthracite was meant to reflect the color scheme found on race tracks around the world, red and white for the curbs and anthracite for the asphalt. All the hands related to the chronograph function are in red, while the ones dedicated to telling time are in black. The dial is completed by a date window at 3 o'clock and in a final touch to the motorsport theme, a tachymeter scale around the edge - a feature that, while not particularly useful in this day and age, was definitely expected on such a watch.

All of this is housed in a 44mm titanium case rated for 120m of water-resistance, with a screw down crown and rectangular pushers. The replica IWC's relationship with Mercedes-AMG goes back to 2004, and has resulted in several limited editions, several with unique case materials like boron carbide. This watch represents another milestone in that continuing relationship. 

I said before that this edition had an especially light premium over the non-limited model. Special edition watches often cost importantly more than their standard siblings, many times with no other reason than that it is labeled a special edition and maybe has a different dial color - and for some supposed "exclusivity." This can be quite frustrating for watch collectors.