Athlete Eileen Gu spotted wearing a IWC

Eileen Gu made one of the more unexpected horological statements of this year's Met Gala when she arrived in New York carrying — not wearing on a wrist — the IWC Schaffhausen Tribute to Pallweber Edition '150 Years' Pocket Watch, reference IW505101. At an event defined by theatrical excess, deploying a pocket watch was a quietly confident move that drew the eye of collectors and fashion editors alike.

The IW505101 is built around IWC's in-house Calibre 94900, a movement that resurrects the jumping-hours and jumping-minutes display patented by Salzburg engineer Josef Pallweber in 1884. Rather than conventional hands sweeping a dial, two apertures cut into a porcelain dial reveal large numeral discs that snap forward with each passing hour and minute — a mechanism demanding exceptional precision in its click-spring geometry. The movement beats at 18,000 vph, offers a 68-hour power reserve, and is finished to a standard commensurate with the piece's commemorative status. The 44 mm case in 18-carat white gold gives the dial's stark, graphic numerals an appropriately monumental frame.

IWC introduced the IW505101 in 2018 as part of its 150th anniversary collection, limiting production to underscore the edition's singular nature. The Pallweber jumping-display had last appeared in IWC's catalogue in the 1980s, making its return both a nod to the manufacture's deep archives and a demonstration of contemporary movement-making capability. Among collectors, the piece occupies a niche where grand complication discipline meets decorative arts — the porcelain dial alone references a craft tradition stretching back through nineteenth-century pocket-watch making.

Gu, a dual Olympic gold medalist and one of sport's most commercially versatile figures, has served as an IWC brand ambassador since 2021. Her choice of the Pallweber pocket watch at the Met Gala — theme and dress undisclosed at press time — reads as a deliberate aesthetic statement rather than a contractual obligation. Few athletes have the cultural fluency to introduce a pocket watch to a fashion audience without it appearing archaic; Gu pulls it off.

The IWC Tribute to Pallweber Edition '150 Years' IW505101 carries an official retail price of $68,500, placing it firmly in grand-complication territory. On the secondary market, examples trade at or slightly above retail given the edition's limited availability, making it a stable if not explosive performer — the kind of piece serious collectors acquire for its horological content rather than short-term arbitrage.