Adventuring With A Special IWC Mark XV Through Australia’s Island State Of Tasmania

Traveling is always an opportunity to spend quality adventure time with a watch. My last trip happened to be in Tasmania, a special place for me. On the trip, I took my IWC Mark XV, which also has great personal significance.

My IWC Mark XV is a watch that fulfills the role of going anywhere and doing anything (GADA). I have written about this on Fratello before, where I nominated the IWC Mark XV as the watch I would take on any significant adventure. Those adventures have included going to the bottom of one of the deepest mine shafts in Australia and plenty of ocean swimming. I even prefer the IWC Mark XV over my Tudor Black Bay 58, a watch I wear almost daily because of its versatility.

The beginnings of an adventure

Recently, I came back from a trip to Tasmania. For those of you who don’t know the geography of Australia that well, Tasmania is an island state that sits 240 kilometers (150 miles) beneath the Australian mainland. In fact, it’s a collection of more than 1,000 smaller islands, with one major island sitting in the middle. That island is the world’s 26th largest. Tasmania is home to about 570,000 people, but at roughly 68,400 square kilometers (28,410 square miles), it’s quite large. This means that if you’re after a little peace and solitude or a beach to yourself, Tasmania is an iconic destination.

Tasmania has long been known for the quirky independence of its residents and the state’s fierce natural beauty. When we talk about quirkiness, one needs only consider some of the place names that Tasmania is famous for. We have localities like Nowhere Else, Horrible Hollow Hill, Mouldy Hole, Stinking Creek, Humbug Point, Haunted Bay, Bog-a-duck Speedway, Granny’s Gut, Break-me-Neck Hill, Keep Down Hole, Monster Creek, Bust-me-Gall Hill, Hard Struggle Gully, Linger and Die Creek. The list of strange place names is long and worth further investigation.

A place like nowhere else

My connection with Tasmania goes back to 2017. That was when, as a young reporter, I scored a job as a TV journalist covering a third of the island’s land mass in the state’s northwest. Moving to a frontier area was a fantastic and, at times, daunting and lonely experience. I was able to lean into one of my life’s great passions, vintage motorcycles. The week before I moved, I bought a 1985 BMW R80 motorbike sight unseen. This led to wonderful and adventurous road trips every other weekend and the development of some lifelong friendships with other vintage motorcycle riders. Like watches, the best thing about vintage vehicles is the community around the hobby.

Having recently had some large personal developments in my life, including more time after a recent relationship breakup, I decided it was the perfect time to venture back to Tasmania. It was a little emotional when the decision was made because it’s a place that has a lot of personal significance for me. The decision of what watch I’d take hinged on two options…

Deciding which watch to take 

First was a 41mm Tudor Ranger that I’d taken on several motorcycle adventures. This watch had been badly damaged but then fully repaired after a motorcycle accident in 2018 (I struck a kangaroo). It still features the large scar of the watch making impact with the asphalt road.

The only real option, however, was the watch that my father had gifted me when he found out I had gotten the job back in 2017. Before that point, I had only ever owned one watch, a Seiko 5 which my father had also given me when I moved to Southeast Asia to work as a rookie reporter in 2014. I had seen this black IWC pilot’s watch on my father’s wrist before and always admired it. Something about the simple and legible dial had always captured my attention. I still remember the moment when he took it off his wrist and handed it to me. It was only a matter of weeks before my big move.

So it was a little emotional to return to Tasmania with the watch on my wrist. A great gulf of personal experiences has developed since 2017 and the present. Not the least of which has been my growing fascination with the watch hobby and my career as a writer for Fratello. The journey itself involved traveling the length of the state on that old BMW R80. The bike had been garaged since I left Tasmania in 2020 to take up further work opportunities in mainland Australia and beyond. My close friend Darrel, who taught me everything I know about servicing and maintaining the old air-cooled BMW boxer engines, had helped keep the bike in running condition during my time away.

The wind in my hair and an IWC Mark XV on my wrist 

The vrrrruuuummm of the boxer engine is thrilling. Plonking your foot upwards and moving the bike into fifth gear is accompanied by a satisfying clunk of the gearbox. Wind will rush through your helmet. The air is fresh as if it has come straight off a mountain range. Sure, your eyes can sting sometimes from the cold, but you feel alive. The hum of the mechanical construction beneath you can let your mind freely wander, even as you scan the road ahead of you for risks. Anyone who has ridden a motorcycle will know exactly the feeling I am talking about. At moments, I would glance down at the IWC Mark XV peeking out from the fold of where my motorcycle jacket met my gloves and just grin.

The natural world of Tasmania truly is enchanting. It may not have the stark mountain ranges of Switzerland, New Zealand, or Nepal, but there is something of an honest quality to its beauty. It’s also in the smaller things, like the train track that skirts the beach in the state’s northwest, an area where I have a little beach cottage to call my own. Or it could be the sheer abundance of Australian wildlife that constantly makes its presence known, from the wombats walking the road to the kangaroos and black cockatoos that you spot while riding on a quiet highway. For the lucky readers among you who have visited Tasmania, I am sure you can understand what I am writing about. It’s an interesting mix of feelings.

Concluding thoughts

Coming back to Sydney after the trip did feel like coming home. It also felt like I always had a piece of home in Tasmania, which must have made me one of the luckier people around. I get that feeling when I wear the IWC Mark XV. It’s a watch that reminds me of my dad, wherever I may be. Because of that, it reminds me of home.

The best thing about an adventure involving a motorbike is that it frees you to sit with yourself and process life. You may say these feelings are a little romantic, but I must say I am grateful that I get to experience them. What about you, Fratelli? In moments when life takes a big right-hand turn, what do you like to do? Let me know in the comments.