There's nothing better than an equally nice watch on the wrist as the car you are driving. High-end watches and supercars have many traits in common. They are expertly crafted by hand using the finest materials, the latest engineering techniques, and attention to detail. Watches are a tremendously complicated answer to something as basic as telling time as cars are for getting from point A to B. Yet, it's their performance that excites us and that is why there's a very high chance that if you like cars, you're also fond of watches.
Here are my top five watches for car guys. Think I missed something? Do leave a comment below!
Tag Heuer, in its early days, was famous for manufacturing timepieces to be mounted on the dashboards of automobiles, aircraft, and boats. It introduced timing devices for Formula One, and many famous drivers wore Tag Heuer watches. In 1969, to pay tribute to the Monaco Grand Prix, the brand rolled out the Monaco, the first square-cased and water resistant chronograph watch. The Monaco gained fame and became iconic not only because of its association with the Grand Prix but also because a certain Steve McQueen wore it in his 1971 movie 'Le Mans'. The latest Monaco range includes black, blue, green and the famous gulf livery blue and orange dial colors. It continues to be powered by the same Calibre 11 movement, with which it debuted in 1969.
Jacob & Co. is a watch brand that manufactures some ultra hi-end luxury timepieces. In this case, I'm talking about the Jacob & Co. Bugatti Chiron Tourbillon. This watch is insane. It contains a fully operational recreation of the iconic Bugatti W16 quad-turbo engine, featuring 578 components. Push the right hand crown and the engine's internal workings come to life, from the miniature pistons and crankshaft to the tiny turbos. You can have it made from steel, gold, titanium and even a sapphire crystal. It measures at a beefy 54mm by 44mm. Want one? Be ready to shell out ₹2.5 crore of your hard earned money.
Rolex is to watches, what Mercedes-Benz is to cars. Everybody knows and aspires to own the brand. Rolex is no stranger to the world of motor racing, the brand has been a sponsor to various forms of motorsports for years. It became the official timekeeper of the Daytona International Speedway in 1962, and to commemorate this occasion, unveiled a new model of its Cosmograph chronograph series, the 6239. The Daytona moniker was added to the watch in 1963, however, reference 6239 was in fact named 'Le Mans' before, after the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans held in France. But the American market had little knowledge of what Le Mans actually was as Ford still hadn't kicked Maranello's ass at the famed endurance race. So, Rolex had to rename it 'Daytona', after the famous NASCAR oval, for it to gain popularity in the US market. And boy did it do that! Currently, if you want to buy a Daytona from an authorised Rolex dealer, you'll have to bear a three to five year long waiting period. And this has led to the Daytona being a star in the pre-owned market. It isn't surprising to watch people pay 2x its retail price on the pre-owned market. And you being a celebrity adds to that even more, as demonstrated by Paul Newman's personal Rolex Daytona, which sold for $17,752,500 (Rs 115 crore) at an auction in 2017.
Here's a watch that looks like a mini Millennium Falcon for your wrist! First unveiled in 2013, the Hublot La Ferrari MP-05 Tourbillon, as the name suggests, was made to celebrate Maranello's epic hypercar.
Pieced together over a period of 18 months, it features a sapphire case which is carved out from seven blocks of sapphire, requiring over 600 hours of work. With a total of 637 components and a vertical tourbillon the MP-05 tells time in a very unique manner, displaying the seconds, minutes and hours through barrels!
The watch requires a miniature power drill to get it going and feed power to its mechanism. This concept is inspired by the tyre-changing tool in Formula 1. At its debut, its 50-day power reserve figure was the highest anybody had ever seen on a mechanical watch, but that number has been bettered by other timepieces now. Today, the MP-05 demands upto ₹7 crore in the pre-owned watch space and honestly if I had the money, I wouldn't mind paying that amount for it at all.
Roger Dubuis teamed up with Lamborghini Squadra Corse to create the Excalibur Huracan. Named after the most hardcore road going version of Bologna's most successful supercar, its skeleton-dial mimics the Huracan's instrument cluster. It gets an Alcantara strap, matching the soft lining of the Huracan's cockpit and a 60-hour power reserve. Limited to just 88 units worldwide, the Excalibur Huracan was made available in Blue Laufey and California Orange colours, which were the official launch colours of the Huracan STO. Powered by an automatic RD630 calibre with a honeycomb motif, which highlights the grille of the car, it sports a sleek carbon case with rubber inlays which are inspired by the Huracan STO's carbon fibre construction and titanium wheels.