If we step back from the category of Best Sports Watch just a little and look at the sports landscape of the last 12 months, the sport of the moment is, without doubt, Formula 1. Thanks to its combination of dangerous curves, highly engineered machines and charismatic pilots, F1 has long been favored by watchmakers looking to promote their products to the right audience. In recent years, that underlying thrum has reached a fever pitch as global interest in F1 has exploded, turning it into a holy grail of sports endorsements.

No one has captured this zeitgeist quite like IWC. Of course, it sponsors a team, but with F1: The Movie, a star (and cameo) studded cast brought viewers into the cockpit of an F1 car like never before, and IWC was there every step of the way. One wrist above all was particularly distinctive — Brad Pitt, playing veteran driver Sonny Hayes, wore a remarkable pièce unique. It was a 1976 Ingenieur SL with a slimmer case and a green dial that he had worked with IWC to create, an old watch suitable for an old driver.

Brad Pitt wears an IWC Ingenieur SL 1832 watch with a custom green dial in the 2025 movie F1. (Photo © Warner Bros. Pictures / Apple Original Films)

IWC Ingenieur Automatic 40 “Sonny Hayes” (©Revolution)

Of course, in a great example of life imitating art imitating life, this one-off green-dialed integrated sports watch inspired the Best Sports Watch of 2025: the limited edition IWC Ingenieur Automatic 40 “Sonny Hayes.” Even without the green-and-gold dial and silver screen connection, this latest generation of Ingenieur is exceptional. The brand has taken the core of Gérald Genta’s famous integrated silhouette and tweaked it in all the right ways to make it feel right at home in the modern era. The transitions from brushed surfaces to polished edges are perfect, and the 40mm version manages to project presence without overwhelm, due in no small part to its slender 10.7mm height. Beyond all this, it still does an excellent job of offering legibility and reliability under a wide range of conditions.

The one-off green-dialed (©Revolution)

IWC Ingenieur Automatic 40 “Sonny Hayes” (©Revolution)

The latest Ingenieur possesses all the foundational elements of a great sports watch, but there’s no denying the allure of its silver-screen connection. Limited to 1,000 pieces, this watch was genuinely hard to get, and not only does the unique dial lend plenty of cachet, but it’s also a great opener for the wearer to tell a (maybe slightly hyperbolic) tale about how Brad Pitt designed their watch.