If your love of watches is grounded in a wider love of all things luxury, the Porsche Rennsport Reunion V is an event you’d be mad to miss! Held every three years, the reunion brings together the finest examples of Porsche automobiles to ever roll off the production line. Well known for its creations not always completely related to motoring, Porsche Design is releasing a new watch to commemorate this emotive event. The Porsche Design Chronotimer Series 1 Rennsport Reunion V Limited Edition watch follows in the footsteps of the 1972, and 1980 chronograph releases by Porsche Design. But before we delve into the technical and aesthetic specifications of this new luxury timepiece, let’s take a look at the event itself and what it stands for.
Held September 25th to 27th, 2015, at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, the Porsche Rennsport Reunion V is the world’s largest gathering of significant Porsche race cars and the drivers that drove them in competition (very often to victory). The Porsche Rennsport Reunion will be watch aficionados’ first chance to see the Porsche Design Chronotimer Series 1 Rennsport Reunion V Limited Edition watch. There will only be 25 pieces made available, first, to those present at the event, and later, in select Porsche Design flagship stores in North America.
Porsche insists that the Rennsport Reunion V is a haven for all motoring enthusiasts, not just those affiliated or acquainted with the manufacturer. The three-day event will feature on-track competition, autograph sessions, a Concours d’Elegance, and exclusive activities celebrating the last six decades of Porsche race cars.
The watch is a product of Porsche Design. It’s easy to dismiss Porsche-branded products as exploiting a name well known in motor sport, but it is so much more. Almost ten years after designing the enduring Porsche 911, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche decided to branch out from the world of automotive design, and established a company that extolled a luxury lifestyle. Crucial to the principles of Porsche Design is the idea of functionality.
Porsche Design carefully selects manufacturers from all parts of the globe, most notably in Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. There, the ideas of the Porsche Design Studios in Zell am See, Berlin, and Singapore are realised. The idea behind this creative enterprise is to serve the men and women of the future, by providing them with products that boast an enhanced performance as well an elegant aesthetic. It’s probably fair to say that the modishness of Porsche Design in the public unconsciousness has fluctuated over the forty-something years of its existence, but for those in the know, it is a perennial power, always capable of turning its hand to a new area of design.
Porsche Design also has history in the field of horology. In 1972, Porsche Design released the Chronograph I and followed it up with the Titanium Chronograph, released in 1980. Those models boasted excellent legibility and were technically sophisticated. The latest addition to the range does not fail to perpetuate these traits. Powered by an ETA Valjoux 7750 with a customised rotor weight, the Porsche Design Chronotimer Series 1 Rennsport Reunion V Limited Edition watch has a 48-hour power reserve, water resistance to 50 meters, a 42mm wide, glass-bead blasted, PVD-coated titanium case, a date window at 4 o’clock, and front and back sapphire crystals. Aesthetically, the watch is notable for featuring the Porsche Rennsport Reunion V logo at 3 o’clock as well as on the “energy-optimized” rotor weight. The dial marries well with the calf leather strap thanks to bright blue dial accents that are mirrored by the bright blue cross stitching on the racing strap.
The Porsche Design Chronotimer Series 1 Rennsport Reunion V Limited Edition watch will have a price of $6,960 (excluding VAT). Porsche-design.com