Porsche Design 1919 Chronotimer x Porsche Winter Driving Experience

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When it comes to sports chronographs, these used to be purpose-built timepieces. Now, it’s more of a fashion/style statement than anything else. A few decades ago, however, chronographs were mainly bought by gentlemen with the budget and time to enjoy playing fast cars. Competitiveness has always been a human trait, especially the 50% of people with more testosterone (also known as men). Chronographs allow them to measure time and compare lap times. That’s what I didn’t do when I went to Northern Finland with replica Porsche Design for the Porsche Driving Experience winter event. It’s a report on having fun on snow and ice, covering almost the entire lineup of Porsche cars. I forgot to measure lap times, but I’m sure you’ll understand when you see this video and the photos below.

I think it’s important to remember why we wear watches. And why there are so many changes, not only in design but also in different functions. As I’ve already mentioned, wrist-worn chronographs used to be primarily for those who could afford to play fast. At least in the early 1900s. Okay, doctors use chronographs too, however, their chronographs have a pulsometer scale instead of the tachymeter scale that gentlemen use when they drive fast. In the first half of the 20th century, these chronographs were proper specialized tools.

Porsche Design invited me to a legendary Porsche driving experience in Santa’s backyard (northern Finland) and I couldn’t say no. I plan to do some testing with the Porsche Design 1919 Chronotimer on my wrist, like those aforementioned gentlemen driving their fast cars. With everything in place, trousers, fleece jacket, thermal socks and a Porsche Design 1919 Chronotimer on my wrist, I got into my first car of the day, a Porsche 911 Carrera S.

quit! Pedal metal! Well…of course I was careful at first, but slowly I got the hang of it and worked harder. The experience is nothing short of spectacular on a slippery surface, it’s hard to walk even without coasting, this powerful machine at 420 bph (I’m talking about a Carrera S) finds its speed gracefully and can quite easily deal with. If you think the tires have spikes, I can guarantee that they are not. Normal rubber on snow and ice (well, winter tires) and even most safety features are turned off, while Sport+ mode is turned on!

Our idea was to test/experience the various 911, 718 Cayman, Panamera Turbo, Macan and Cayenne on ice. I was too naive to think I was counting the hours. First, everything is white. The track, everywhere you look except the track, the sky, you see white. So any sense of speed, or even your exact position on the track, is futile. Most corners look the same. Timing laps proved to be very difficult, but most importantly, I was too distracted. Despite the ubiquity of white, the scenery is beautiful… breath taking.

It was an early morning, and despite the short night, I was completely awake when I saw this gorgeous lineup. Like it says good morning and have a great day! This is exactly what I have.

Driving and handling a Porsche isn’t something I do every day (unfortunately), and this new experience distracts me from actually timing the laps. I learned how to drift, or at least I tried to learn it. When we had to go home again, I learned a lot more about Porsche cars, how they handled and which systems needed to be turned off for more fun. Here are some impressions from my two days at the Porsche Driving Experience Winter event in northern Finland…. awesome!

For those interested, you can sign up for the Porsche Driving Experience website here. The training program started in mid-January 2018, and while most programs are sold out, there are still a small number of places available. In addition to the Porsche Winter Driving Experience, there are many other exciting activities and training programmes, including World Adventures!

Richard Mille RM 67-01, the flattest Richard Mille to date

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Richard Mille’s main trade inventory has never been ultra-thin watches – if anything, his timepieces over the years have been more striking in terms of depth, some downright gigantic. He can certainly make the watch thinner when he wants to, though, and it often works well. Both the rectangular RM 16 and the more recent RM 33-01 deviate from his usual habit, this year at SIHH he presents his latest RM 67-01, his flattest watch to date and the first he has made An extra-flat watch with a tonneau-shaped case, which has been the basis of his designs since the company launched its first watch in 2001.

Richard Mille’s trading stock has never been an ultra-thin watch – if anything, his timepieces have been more notable over the years for their depth play, and some are downright huge . He can certainly make the watch thinner when he wants to, though, and it often works well. Both the rectangular RM 16 and the more recent RM 33-01 deviate from his usual habit, this year at SIHH he presents his latest RM 67-01, his flattest watch to date and the first he has made An extra-flat watch with a tonneau-shaped case, which has been the basis of his designs since the company launched its first watch in 2001.

Richard Mille’s design work is hard to fault. Assuming you totally like this approach to watch design, there’s basically Richard Mille and those who try (often unsuccessfully) to imitate him. (Designing watches after Richard Mille is a bit like a painter after Jackson Pollock, or a writer after James Joyce; trying to replicate their success by replicating their language or visual vocabulary is both tempting and a bad idea idea.) The RM 67-01 is a great looking watch. The titanium version shown here does an excellent job of overall fit and finish; obviously each surface has been carefully considered in relation to the dial, gear train and other elements of the case, as we looked at Apple As the Watch said, attention to detail is true luxury.

Granted, Richard Mille has its own unique design language, but this celebration of the aesthetics of industrial materials is also a classic modernist design strategy, with a few other notable exceptions (such as the Royal Oak, which does have an important role in stainless steel in watches). , as Mies van der Rohe did in architecture) not many watch designers can do it like Richard Mille.

One of the interesting things about his approach is that, at least broadly speaking, it’s actually pretty conservative, which I think is a big part of Mille’s success. He’s very smart about challenging expectations, but offering the challenge in a reassuring framework so the whole thing doesn’t get too alienating.

Much of the appeal of his work lies in traditional watchmaking, both in finish and mechanics. boasting that you have a fast-spinning mainspring barrel and optimized gear tooth profiles, almost like a baseball, although Richard Mille’s watch has modern industrial materials and finishing methods, overall his aesthetic remains Relying on alternating, matt and brushed surfaces of polish, it has been the mainstay of Geneva watchmaking for hundreds of years.

Where I really struggle with Richard Mille copy is the pricing. Almost everyone you talk to these days will agree that things are getting out of hand, not just potential customers for the watch; quite a few CEOs or near CEO level have commented to us that they really want to know (I care about paraphrasing) this Has the industry not yet cornered itself. Where exactly does the disconnect between offered value and actual price start to become unacceptable? Of course, this depends on a lot of variables. Often, when we write about very expensive watches, we end up shrugging and saying “I believe that for its target customers, price doesn’t matter” or something like that. It’s also very easy to start thinking of price as an abstraction unrelated to watch design criticism. However, I think these two are really starting to feel like abdication of the responsibility to discuss important things. After all, sky-high prices in the art world are fair game to discuss how art is viewed; why not in watchmaking?

This is a titanium case chronograph watch with a date knob. Undoubtedly, high prices are part of the appeal to many Richard Mille clients – and it’s part of the reason his watches are such effective symbols of exclusivity, and if they weren’t so recognizable, they wouldn’t play that role well ( Also, it doesn’t hurt that they are often very attractive as design objects). I think it’s pretty clear that having a lot of talk about high cost and exclusivity about his watches is a deliberate strategy.

Regarding the RM 67-01, it’s obviously very expensive, but then again, watches from the likes of Kari Voutilainen and Roger Smith are similarly priced but offer very different The value proposition, perhaps the real disconnect for mechanical timepieces, at least at the high end, is not between value and price, but function and price. At this level, it is almost accidental that the object in question is a watch.

Update 2/11: Richard Mille clarified to us that the movement is designed in-house and manufactured externally; the company noted that it has always been transparent about its suppliers and will only refer to its movements as ” Made in-house”. An earlier version of this story failed to notice that the watch shown was a white gold model, not titanium. The story has been updated; we regret any confusion.

Richard Mille RM 67-01 Automatic Extra Flat; as shown, white gold case, 38.70mm x 47.52mm x 7.75mm. Hours, minutes, date; function indicator showing crown position. Movement, CRMA6 movement, 3.6 mm thick, designed by Richard Mille; platinum oscillating weight, 50-hour power reserve, 25 jewels at 28,800 vph. Water resistance, 50 m. The movement was designed by Richard Mille and manufactured externally.