IWC Schaffhausen

Schaffhausen, 8 May 2012 – IWC Schaffhausen is proud to announce a new global partnership with the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team. The Swiss watch manufacturer embarks on a three-year term as Official Engineering Partner of MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS, beginning in January 2013.

When IWC Schaffhausen and AMG, the performance brand of Mercedes-Benz, signed a long-term partnership agreement in 2004, their cooperation was founded on a shared commitment to pushing back the boundaries of mechanics and high technology. Both companies looked back on a long and fruitful history in precision engineering to the highest degree. Since then, they have consolidated their positions at the top of their respective industries and the partnership is set to move to a new level.

As an indication of the foundation the two companies have in common, IWC Schaffhausen and the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team are joining forces in a venture that confirms the Swiss watch manufacturer as the Official Engineering Partner of the team. The agreement becomes effective in January 2013, two months before the first race of the 2013 Formula One season in Melbourne, Australia.

Shared passion, shared expertise
Commenting on the role as Official Engineering Partner, Georges Kern, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen, explains: “The partnership with MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS will enable us to share our passion for high-level engineering, our quest for ultimate perfection and our aim for top performance with a global audience. We look forward to being part of Formula One.” Nick Fry, CEO of MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS, mirrors Georges Kern’s sentiments: “It is a privilege to find another company that espouses the same principles, with the same insistence on absolute perfection, as our own. We firmly believe that the partnership with IWC Schaffhausen will be enormously beneficial to us both.” MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Team Principal Ross Brawn emphasizes the advances in engineering made by Formula One in the past few years: “It is widely recognized that motorsport serves as a testing ground for technologies that ultimately benefit us all. As the pinnacle of global motorsport, Formula One is at the forefront of such development, and that leading role is set to continue in the years ahead.”