October 2, 2025

— A U.S. company developing what it plans to be the world's first commercial space station has chosen a Swiss luxury watchmaker to be its "Official Timekeeper."

Vast, a space habitation firm based in Long Beach, California, has partnered with IWC Schaffhausen to provide timepieces for its clients. The collaboration also aims at enhancing the "durability and performance of mechanical watches on Earth [while pushing] the boundaries of watchmaking to the harsh environment of space," according to the two companies.

"Vast and IWC Schaffhausen both share a passion for innovation driven by scientific progress," said Max Haot, chief executive officer of Vast, in a statement. "With our mutual passion for bold invention in our respective industries, this collaboration will be a historic milestone in the evolution of spaceflight-ready timepieces."

IWC the official timekeeper of Vast. Click to enlarge video in new pop-up window. (IWC)

Vast is currently developing Haven-1, a single-module, human-tended outpost to demonstrate its capabilities, and Haven-2, a multi-module complex intended to succeed the International Space Station (ISS). Haven-1, which as of mid-September was fully welded, is on schedule to launch next year atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Four-person government or private crews would then come and go from two-week missions on Haven-1 aboard SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

Later this year, Vast plans to launch a demo satellite to test its Haven-1 propulsion and avionics systems.

"Our collaboration with Vast is a natural evolution of our heritage in aviation, which began almost a century ago," said Chris Grainger-Herr, IWC chief executive. "We are excited to continue this journey as Vast's Official Timekeeper and look forward to exploring new frontiers together."

"This collaboration will enable IWC Schaffhausen to intensify its research and development efforts for watches that are tested for spaceflight. During future, long-duration space missions, a mechanical watch showing Earth time can also be the object that emotionally connects the astronauts to their home," said Grainger-Herr.

IWC Schaffhausen previously designed custom watches for the commercial Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn missions that flew with four private astronauts in low Earth orbit in 2021 and 2024, respectively. Unlike those watches, which were mostly aimed at becoming post-flight collectibles used to raise money for charity, the Vast and IWC partnership is aimed at using the Haven platform to improve space-based time-keeping technology.

Vast engineers will test IWC's prototype watches, putting them through simulations to measure their reaction to the vibrations experienced during launch and assess their compatibility with Haven-1. The test models will be qualified in similar ways to some of the hardware flying on Haven Demo and Haven-1.

"As Vast advances humanity's presence in low-Earth orbit and unlocks a new era of scientific progress in space, we're excited to collaborate with IWC on timepieces that capture this ethos of exploration and discovery," said Haot.

IWC Schaffhausen is Vast's first brand partner, which the company says serves a model for the commercialization opportunities for low-Earth orbit.