Most of the time, IWC is a pretty straight-up-and-down watchmaker, steadily making no-fuss timekeepers for the real world. They’re not known for frivolous flights of fancy (they’re from the German-speaking part of Switzerland, after all). Sometimes, though, they let the veneer slip and release something absolutely wild into the world. A few years ago, it was the Big Pilot Shock Absorber XPL. Today, it’s a completely luminous watch made from a new proprietary material called Ceralume.

As the name suggests, Ceralume is a fully luminous ceramic material made using a patented process that involves mixing ceramic powders with Super-LumiNova pigments to create a fully luminous case that emits a blue-ish light for over 24 hours. The white ceramic is was challenging to create, specifically creating an even mix of luminous compounds, as the Super-LumiNova particles are a different size to the raw ceramic materials, and avoiding particle accululation was a real challenge.

Luckily, IWC is well-equipped for this particular challenge. They’ve been working in ceramic for decades now, pioneering with the world’s first black zirconium ceramic oxide ceramic case in 1986 and, more recently, brown silicon nitride ceramic and black boron carbide ceramic, as well as introducing Ceratanium into the watch space.

So, what is IWC doing with this hard-to-miss new material? Well, the brand’s experimental XPL division (the ones that made the Shock Absorber) has created a fully luminous concept watch. The brand new Ceralume Pilot’s Watch Case is joined by a fully luminous dial and a luminescent white rubber strap. While the future of this concept watch is unclear for now, we don’t imagine it will be going on any stealth missions.

Find out more about Ceralume at IWC.