A Theory On The Possible Origins Of Brad Pitt’s Mysterious ‘F1’ IWC Ingenieur
A couple of weeks ago, the worldwide watch-spotting community was offered something of a mystery via the wrist of Brad Pitt. The famous actor and star of the upcoming film F1 (Kosinski, 2025) arrived at Hungaroring in late July for the Hungarian Grand Prix, and he was wearing something strange on his wrist.
As my good pal Oren covered in his original story for GQ, Pitt appeared to be wearing an IWC Ingenieur SL ref. 1832 on his wrist, and it looks to have been modified from the original spec with a green dial. While the IWC part makes full sense (IWC is a notable sponsor of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team), the option for a modified vintage model is, well, rather intriguing.
Assuming that you’re okay with the assertion that Brad didn’t modify this Ingenieur from the comfort of his own living room, then I’m left wondering – who did?
As with any good conspiracy theory, it’s best to start with what we do know. It’s almost certainly a watch based on an 1832, but it has a green dial (with minimal text and a new placement for the IWC nameplate), the dial does not appear to have a date, and it has a polished bezel.
The IWC Ingenieur SL ref. 1832 is a Genta-derived design that was launched in 1976, the same year as the Patek Philippe Nautilus. With its shoulders-out profile, textured dial, and H-link style bracelet, the model set the tone for the brand’s integrated bracelet sports watch.
An example of the original IWC Ingenieur SL 1832.
For our sleuthing purposes, the SL 1832 was not offered in a green dial, nor was it offered without a date, and the original finishing was largely brushed with small polished bevels for the case and bezel edge. While the green dial and/or the polished elements could be done by a wide range of aftermarket modifiers, I think that the removal of the date takes this customization to an entirely different level.
My rational theory says that this is a special creation that IWC made because they want Pitt to wear an IWC in the upcoming film. The reigning Internet theory is that the watch is a prop made for the film (which is a rational and plausible option). My tinfoil hat theory is that this is a special project by a high-level customizer, and my current all-in guess would be Cloister Watch Co.
Cloister has been on our radar since we had the brand’s founder, Cooper Zelnick, on Talking Watches back in 2022. If you missed that episode, Zelnick is a designer who started Cloister Watch Co. to experiment with in-depth recreations of vintage watches that never existed. All these years later, so-called “date deletes” are one of the brand’s specialties. You can even find an 1832-adjacent and now date-free Rolex 1530 (also an integrated bracelet sports watch from 1976) with a bright blue dial presented on the brand’s website.
To be clear, I’m not aware of any public relationship between Cloister Watch Co. and Brad Pitt, but this modernization and re-imagining of 1832 feel very much in the brand’s ethos. And, while I know this might be me going full Jeffrey Goines on this theory, there are not one but two published projects on Cloister Watch Co.’s website that have “BP” engraved on the case back – with one being a 1976 IWC Da Vinci. Also, at the time of publishing, there is a private project with a blurry photo that shows a watch with what appears to be a green dial.
Clearly, I’ve been dying to talk about the mail.
So, that is my theory for the Brad Pitt F1 IWC watch. When I reached out to Cooper Zelnick and presented the above as some sort of an argument (surprisingly, he didn’t just block me), this was his reply: “Cloister takes client confidentiality seriously and never comments upon specific projects. I do think, however, that the Ref. 1832 looks fantastic without a date. Whoever reimagined Genta’s Ingenieur for F1 has wonderful taste.”
Regardless of the brand(s) behind the watch in question, be it IWC, prop masters, Cloister, or otherwise, it’s a great-looking spin on the Ingenieur and – continuing my theorizing – maybe it points to what we can expect from the future of the recently relaunched Ingenieur line.
Hodinkee
