Watch Paparazzi

Actor Daniel Kaluuya spotted wearing IWC

At the 90th Academy Awards in March 2018, Daniel Kaluuya arrived as one of the evening's most anticipated nominees, recognised for his breakthrough performance in Jordan Peele's Get Out. On his wrist, sharp-eyed observers noted an IWC Ingenieur Chronograph in 18KT red gold, reference IW380803 — a watch that balances industrial heritage with precious-metal refinement in a way few timepieces manage convincingly.

The IWC Ingenieur Chronograph IW380803 is built around an in-house IWC Calibre 89365, a column-wheel chronograph movement with vertical clutch, offering a 68-hour power reserve. The case measures 45mm in 18KT red gold with a black ceramic bezel, giving it a two-tone presence that is assertive without being ostentatious. Water resistance is rated to 120 metres — a specification that underlines the Ingenieur's sporting credentials regardless of case material. The dial features a tachymeter scale, three subsidiary chronograph registers, and a date window, all rendered with the legibility that has defined the Ingenieur line since its 1955 debut.

The Ingenieur name carries genuine horological weight. The original 1955 reference 666 was engineered to resist magnetic fields of 1,000 A/m, designed for professionals working near electrical equipment. Gerald Genta's 1976 redesign gave the line its distinctive five-point integrated bracelet and porthole case silhouette, repositioning the Ingenieur as a serious sport-luxury proposition alongside the Royal Oak and Nautilus. The IW380803 belongs to a 2013 relaunch generation that leaned heavily into that Genta-era aesthetic while incorporating contemporary movement architecture.

Kaluuya's selection reads as considered rather than coincidental. The red gold Ingenieur Chronograph sits in a register that signals watch literacy — it is not the obvious celebrity flex of a skeletonised tourbillon or a diamond-set dial. It suggests a buyer who appreciates mechanical credibility and engineering heritage alongside the warmth of a precious-metal case.

The IW380803 carried a UK list price of approximately £13,215 at the time of the sighting. IWC has since discontinued the 45mm Ingenieur Chronograph generation, and pre-owned examples in red gold now trade at a modest discount to original retail on the grey market, reflecting broader softness in the sport-luxury chronograph segment. For collectors, the red gold variant remains the rarest and most visually distinctive execution of that short-lived but well-regarded reference.