We at The Watch Collectors’ Club love to explore the world of motorsport’s influence on watch design. The overlap between watch enthusiasts and car enthusiasts is high, and a large number of brands have official partnerships with carmakers or racing events. Tag Heuer, Rolex, Richard Mille, Omologato, Bremont and more all sponsor either race events or teams. This Blog Post will explore the history of the watch world’s association with Motorsports, and highlight the variety of motorsport-inspired designs available.

The new TAG Heuer Carrera, a watch named after a historic rally across Mexico held in the 1950s.

The importance of watches in Motorsports

Almost as soon as motor vehicles were invented, people wanted to know how fast they were going and started to arrange races. In 1902 the first Speedometer was patented but most people used their pocket watches. Companies such as Breitling and Longines were already famous for their timing devices for sporting events such as horse races, and it was an obvious next step to time motor races for cars and bikes.

After the First World War, wristwatches boomed in popularity, and timing wristwatches became more and more common, known as chronographs. While Breitling pioneered the chronograph using one button and two, many other brands had similar models by the end of the 1920s. Malcolm Campbell was one of the watch world’s first celebrities in the 1930s wearing his Rolex while attempting to set the world land speed record. He was happy to promote Rolex with his comments but refused any payment as he thought it was beneath him!

Malcolm Campbell in a Rolex Ad. He was one of the first watch world celebrity influencers. Image courtesy of Jake's Rolex World: www.rolexmagazine.com

Motorsports inspired Watch Design

We’ve been exploring watch design recently on our Blog Series, and it’s fair to say that watches inspired by cars, bikes and racing have been a huge hit with watch lovers since their emergence in the 1950s. Two features in particular are most common; the chronograph, or stopwatch function, and the tachymetre, which is a scale used to determine how fast something is going. We’ve covered how to read common watch scales before, and they add a lot to the design, whether they are on the dial like in the Breitling Top Time, or on the Bezel like a Rolex Daytona or Omega Speedmaster.

The chronograph also gives designers so much to play with as they have pushers, or buttons, on the side that control it, and these can be moved to different positions on the case. The subdials can be all different shapes and sizes, and additional functions can be added; most modern watches will include a date function.

Case Materials inspired by Cars

One of the largest trends in modern watchmaking has been to introduce exotic materials into the watch cases or sometimes into the movement itself. Many materials used in high-performance racing cars can now be found in watches, including carbon fibre and special composites. This makes for a very modern-looking watch.

The Richard Mille Le Mans Special Edition. The case is made of special composite materials inspired by those used in racing cars.

Reissues and Reimagined Watches

Many big brands have long histories of relationships with motorsports partners and have updated their most famous watches to reflect historical partnerships. TAG Heuer are very famous for this across their watch ranges; the Carrera and the Monaco. These are named after two famous races; the Carrera Panamerica rally which ran across Mexico from 1950 to 1954, and the Monaco Grand Prix, a fixture on the Formula 1 race calendar since 1948. Both watches have completely different design codes, and while the Monaco has always been a chronograph, the Carrera has seen a lot of change over the years, while keeping its link to racing.

Another recent trend is watches inspired by a particular vehicle or story from the motor racing world. Singer is a car restorer that focuses on Porsche, and the Singer Reimagined series are watches that match their car styling. We’ve also seen similar ideas from Breitling with their Top Time series of car-related watches launched this year.

The Watch Collectors’ Club regularly hold events themed around car-related watches, and even joint events with Car Clubs. We love the many watches that are inspired by cars, bikes, or racing, and look forward to many more being produced in future.