IWC Schaffhausen collaborates with Swiss ceramic artist Laurin Schaub for Homo Faber 2026 in Venice, presenting three luminous moon jars glazed with Super-LumiNova pigments.
What It Offers
- Three luminous moon jars by Swiss ceramic artist Laurin Schaub, glazed with Super-LumiNova pigments directly inspired by IWC’s proprietary Ceralume technology, are exhibited at Homo Faber 2026 in Venice throughout September 2026 — a collaboration that extends the same material logic behind the 250-piece Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Ceralume into the domain of sculptural ceramics.
- The jars form part of the installation “A Full Moon Rising” at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s Piscina Gandini; a third jar is shown at IWC’s Venice boutique alongside the Ceralume watch.
- In darkness, a luminous glaze reveals the inscription “Lux Perpetua” on each jar’s surface, referencing IWC’s perpetual calendar legacy and Ceralume technology.
- Schaub employed Nerikomi, a traditional Japanese clay-layering technique, for the jars’ construction, then applied a glaze requiring extensive trials of mixing ratios and kiln temperatures.
Design & Mechanics
Schaub’s method begins with Nerikomi: clays of different colours layered by hand into a single sheet, then pressed into a spherical mould and fired. The exterior surface references the crater-marked face of the moon. Over this, he applied the luminous glaze, whose Super-LumiNova pigments absorb light energy and release it as a visible glow — the same photoluminescent principle that RC Tritec engineered into IWC’s Ceralume ceramic cases.
The inscription “Lux Perpetua” only becomes legible once ambient light is removed, connecting the piece to IWC’s perpetual calendar complications. The Portugieser Eternal Calendar, for reference, holds a world record for moon phase precision: a deviation of just one day in more than 45 million years.
The Installation in Venice
The fourth Homo Faber Biennial, titled “An Island of Light”, runs throughout September on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Artistic Director Es Devlin conceived 15 immersive installations drawing on work by artisans from over 70 countries. Two of Schaub’s jars occupy the Piscina Gandini — an indoor pool dating from 1961 — arranged in a semicircular structure that, reflected in the still water, appears as a complete full moon. The third jar is shown at IWC Schaffhausen‘s newly opened Venice boutique, displayed alongside the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Ceralume, limited to 250 pieces and announced at Watches and Wonders Geneva in April 2026.
Why Collectors Care
Winner of the 2018 Swiss Design Award and the 2022 Prix FEMS, Laurin Schaub holds institutional representation in the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich and the Musée Ariana in Geneva. For Gulf collectors who have followed Ceralume’s development since its introduction in the Big Pilot’s Watch, these three jars offer a rare instance of IWC’s proprietary material science crossing into gallery-calibre craft — produced in an edition of three, presented at one of Europe’s foremost craft biennials.
A Measured Verdict
IWC’s participation at Homo Faber 2026 is grounded in a specific material argument: Ceralume is not a decorative finish but a technology developed through years of ball-milling process refinement. Commissioning Schaub to translate that same photoluminescent logic into hand-thrown ceramics is a coherent extension of that position. The collaboration makes the engineering visible to an audience that may never encounter it on a wrist.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the three moon jars IWC created for Homo Faber 2026?
IWC Schaffhausen collaborated with Swiss ceramic artist Laurin Schaub to produce three luminous moon jars for Homo Faber 2026 in Venice. Two are displayed in the Piscina Gandini installation 'A Full Moon Rising', and one is shown at IWC's Venice boutique. Each jar features a glaze containing Super-LumiNova pigments that reveals the inscription 'Lux Perpetua' in darkness.
What is IWC's Ceralume technology and how does it connect to the Laurin Schaub collaboration?
Ceralume is IWC's proprietary luminous ceramic technology, developed using a ball-milling process that achieves a homogeneous mixture of ceramic powders and Super-LumiNova pigments engineered by Swiss company RC Tritec. Laurin Schaub drew directly on Ceralume as inspiration when formulating the luminous glaze for the moon jars, conducting extensive tests varying mixing ratios and firing temperatures to translate the material innovation into an artistic form.
Is the IWC Big Pilot's Watch Perpetual Calendar Ceralume available to view in the Gulf or Middle East?
The Big Pilot's Watch Perpetual Calendar Ceralume, limited to 250 pieces and announced at Watches and Wonders Geneva in April 2026, is currently displayed at IWC's newly opened Venice boutique alongside one of Laurin Schaub's moon jars. For availability in the Middle East, contact IWC Schaffhausen or an authorised retailer directly.
Who is Laurin Schaub and what awards has he received?
Laurin Schaub is a Swiss ceramic artist born in 1984 whose work moves between traditional pottery and contemporary fabrication techniques. He received the Swiss Design Award in 2018 and the Prix FEMS in 2022. His work is held in the collections of the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich and the Musée Ariana in Geneva.
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