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The ultimate analogue wristwatch for your analogue 911? Porsche Design says it has the answer.
The second most expensive option on the Porsche 911 GT3 RS is a £9900 matching watch, below the £12,626 Weissach package (with rollcage) and above the £6498 ceramic-composite brakes. As car enthusiasts we get that the RS is one of the most tactile, analogue, thrilling cars you can currently buy new, and that the Weissach and big-brake options will actually make a difference on track.
Ten grand for a watch is harder to justify, but Porsche bravely sent us both car and watch to test. On paper, it starts to make sense. Butzi Porsche did the exterior design for the 911 and 904 before founding Porsche Design, initially an independent business. Its first product was a black chronograph watch intended for Porsche drivers, just like this one.
It went on to become a credible watch maker, producing well-regarded military watches and developing innovativenewpieceswithSwissbrandIWC.PorscheDesign was brought in-house in 2003, and has started making limited-run watches to match high-end, low volume 911s. They’re only available to those who buy the cars, and can be customised to match an individual car’s specification.
The GT3 RS watch is similar to those offered for the GT2 RS and Turbo S Exclusive, but can’t be as highly customised. The winding rotor visible through the clear caseback is shaped like the gorgeous RS wheel and can be finished to match your car’s wheels. And if yours is painted signature Lizard Green, you can fit a strap in matching alcantara.
But that’s it. The Turbo S watch offered a dial painted the colour of your car, and Autodromo does a watch for Ford GT owners with matching dial and serial number. And while the watch itself has some interesting features, it’s not hugely compelling. It’s a fairly plain chronograph with two sub-dials and a slightly awkward date window. Porsche Design claims that the Werk 01.200 movement is its own design and manufacture, but it’s very similar to the Valjoux 7750 movement that powered the first Porsche watch in the early ’70s, and can be found in watches costing under a grand. It has a flyback function, in which the chrono seconds hand can instantly flick back to zero and start a new count, which is clever but of limited use. And there’s a quick-release on the inside of the strap where it meets the case, allowing you to easily swap straps. Nice, but I’d worry how securely my 10-grand watch was attached to my wrist.
The watch is a wholly discretionary purchase and doesn’t need to make sense, but I’d guess the majority of discerning owners will already have a bunch of interesting watches, maybe with a more subtle motoring link, that they’d rather wear when they drive their GT3 RS.