Porsche Design Customized Chronograph
Just as a potential Porsche 911 buyer is greeted with a host of options, Porsche Design now invites you to play watch designer by creating your own customized chronograph. Six years in the making, a new online watch configurator is based on Porsche’s popular car configurator. The new feature allows for approximately 1.5 million different design combinations.
Unique among car-affiliated watches, Porsche Design falls under the manufacturer’s umbrella, which allows it to draw directly on the resources of the automotive division for what is an authentic connection to the cars they represent.
Starting with a base 42 mm Chronotimer Series 1 model ($4,200), you decide between a glass bead-blasted natural titanium case and a black titanium case coated in titanium carbide via PVD. “Titanium and black-coated titanium cases are what Porsche Design timepieces have become known for,” says Rolf Bergmann, managing director of Porsche Design Timepieces. “This originated with the designer of the Porsche 911, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, and we will never change anything about it.”
From there, the choices expand exponentially to include different bezels, dial accent colors, hands and more. Some options link directly with the cars, such as straps made from genuine Porsche leather stitched with yarn in your choice of colors.
With the program, Porsche Design also marks the first use of the COSC-certified in-house WERK 01.100 movement in series production. A sapphire-crystal case back reveals the customizable winding oscillator. Its six options feature the wheel designs of the latest-generation Porsche 911—from the classic 911 Carrera rim with the two-tone Porsche crest in the center to the 911 Carrera Exclusive Design version with a gold badge at its center. And like the edges of the cars’ wheels, the rotor edge can be customized from Porsche’s color palette.
The customizable rotors are precisely engineered to correspond to a 1:22 scaled-down version of the original rim, adapted to the geometry of the watch. “This is precisely the level of attention to detail that our customers expect from us,” says Bergmann.
You can even engrave the case back with brief personalized text like a vanity plate for your wrist.
