Porsche Design Timepiece No. 1 Watch

The picture above is an early drawing of what will be the Porsche Design Timepiece No. 1, the first watch actually officially made by Porsche Design as we understand it. Porsche Design has been involved in watchmaking since 1972, and has worked with a range of different watch companies to produce its watch designs. These have included brands such as Orfina, IWC, and Eterna over the years, but a new era of in-house production will come to Porsche Design soon.

Earlier in 2014, Porsche Design ended its longstanding relationship with Swiss Eterna watches to produce timepieces for the Stuttgart-based German company. The precise reason for the termination of the relationship remains unclear but I theorized that it may have had something to do with Eterna’s purchase by the Chinese company China Haidian. After the purchase, Eterna’s CEO Patrick Kury also stepped down and it was unclear what the future of both companies would be like.

Several months ago I spoke to some people at Porsche Design to get a better understanding of what the future held. I was informed that Porsche Design was of course going to continue making watches but they were not looking for a new production partner. Instead they were going to focus on in-house production, as well as in-house made Porsche Design watch movements in the near future. I was told to wait a bit and that more would be revealed soon with their first “in-house” Porsche Design watch released by the end of 2014 – less than one year after their split with Eterna.

Porsche Design Timepieces CEO Patrick Kury

I don’t normally like to bore people with watch industry talk, but this does affect the products many people like, as well as affecting a brand that I am very much a fan of. Porsche Design just announced a few bits of interesting news. First and foremost is the formation of a Swiss subsidiary named Porsche Design Timepieces AG that of course will operated in Switzerland to produce watches. This will be under the larger Porsche Design Group whose CEO is Juergen Gessler. The second piece of news is that the CEO of the Porsche Design TImepieces company will be Patick Kury.

So from producing Porsche Design watches at Eterna, Mr. Kury will now move in-house to Porsche Design to continue his work. Watch lovers know that his engineering-minded mentality to watch making combined with Porsche Design’s design talent has helped create a lot of really desirable products.

Original 1972 Porsche Design Chronograph watch

In the Fall of 2014, the first new Porsche Design watch will be released known as the Porsche Design Timepiece No. 1. We don’t have full images yet but Porsche Design has released the sketch above that reveals a familiar look typical of Porsche Design DNA. At first glance the design of the Timepiece No. 1 may appear simple, but in reality it continues the modern simplicity and functional character Porsche Design is known for. According to Porsche Design the team was influenced by the design of their original Chronograph watch from 1972.

Even though we don’t have too many visuals to begin with, there is some information about what the Porsche Design Timepiece No. 1 will be like. First of all, this model will not have an in-house made movement, but future models might. For now, Porsche Design will make use of the tried and true Swiss ETA Valjoux 7750 automatic. The case of the Timepiece No. 1 will be 42mm wide (water resistant to 50 meters) and in black-coated titanium. Further, the sapphire crystal case back window will be tinted black, and there will be a custom Porsche Design rotor (perhaps a new one). The Porsche Design Timepiece No. 1 will be limited to 500 pieces and no price information is currently available. Once again, Porsche Design has promised a released before the end of 2014. porsche-design.com