PORSCHE DESIGN CHRONOGRAPH 1

After the 911, Butzi turned his hand to designing timepieces

THIS YEAR MARKS the 55th birthday of the 911, brainchild of Ferdinand Alexander ‘Butzi’ Porsche, who passed away in 2012. The grandson of the car company’s founder, Ferdinand, or ‘FA’ as he was affectionately known by his colleagues, was arguably the first car designer to apply Bauhaus philosophy to automotive design, extolling the virtues of form that followed function. So radical was his thinking that the architecture of the 911 – sleek and graceful in silhouette but methodically purpose-built – remains relatively unchanged to this day.

A true nonconformist, FA Porsche believed in the principles of ‘pure form’, design that dismissed decoration in favour of ergonomics. This modernist approach wasn’t limited to the bodywork of roadsters – like the Bauhaus artists before him, FA believed that design should reflect a wider lifestyle choice. In 1972, he left the car business to set up his Porsche Design Studio, choosing a wristwatch as his company’s first release.

Like the 911, The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 (known as the Chrono 1, or simply PD01) was revolutionary in both look and concept thanks to its matt-black chromed steel case and bracelet. The coating was the handiwork of Swiss military watchmaker Orfina, pioneer of the PVD technology applied to military-spec equipment such as the blades of helicopters to reduce friction and increase resistance to oxidisation. It was the world’s first all-black steel watch and its austere, functional design echoed the speed and fury of the track as well as the interiors of racing icons such as the 917 and the 911 Carrera RSR; its face black to match the look of the cars’ speedometer and revcounter.

The Chrono 1 still looks contemporary – like the 911, it can only really be improved via technical advancement. As for its combatready design and Teutonic efficiency, the chronograph is the embodiment of what FA Porsche modestly called an ‘obvious’ object: ie, one that had been developed to match the legacy, purpose and ambition of his family’s brand.

By the early 1980s, the Chrono 1 was powered by the Lemania 5100 movement, opening up the timepiece to military contracts with special editions made for NATO and the British Royal Navy. Tom Cruise’s Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell wears the wristwatch in Top Gun, as does Martin Shaw as Doyle in The Professionals – proof that this vintage piece has enough kudos to last a lifetime as one of the gamechangers in watchmaking history.