Autoblog

We're still a few months away from the official unveiling of the new California, but that didn't stop Ferrari from finding something to debut for the crowds at the British International Motor Show.

Drawing on its collaboration with Italian watchmaker Officine Panerai, Ferrari revealed its latest collection of automotive-inspired timepieces, ready to compete for the coveted wrists of the uber-wealthy with the likes of Breitling for Bentley, Aston Martin by Jaeger LeCoultre and Mercedes SLR by TAG Heuer. The new 2008 collection includes no less than 16 watches divided between the Scuderia and Granturismo series. The only thing more Ferrari-like than the design is the pricing, which ranges from £8,900 to a whopping £28,300. Heck, for that kind of scrap, you could buy yourself a nice vintage Ferrari road car, and still have enough change left over for a new wardrobe of Prancing Horse apparel to live out your Schumacher Raikkonen fantasies.

[Source: Panerai]

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The name Zagato might as well be Italian for "exclusive"; that's exactly what their designs are. Although the carrozzeria has been designing cars since 1919, their most recent designs have all been extremely limited editions. Creations like the Maserati GS Zagato and Ferrari 575 GTZ had just one example made of each. The Spyker C12 Zagato was planned for 24 copies, but those plans have since been shelved. The design house recently announced that the Diatto GT Ottovu would be produced in a limited run of 99, like the 2002 Aston Martin DB7 Zagato, which seems like mass-production by comparison. So it makes sense that when the Milanese design atelier turned their attention to creating a wristwatch, they would only make 25 examples.

The striking timepiece you see here is the result of a new long-term collaboration between Zagato and Swiss watchmakers Wyler Genève, forged out of the childhood friendship between the heads of both companies. Zagato designed the titanium case which houses the mechanical "manufacture" – i.e., built completely in-house – movement suspended in a carbon fiber and resin frame on shock absorbers. The dial features an F-E power reserve indicator like a fuel gauge on a car, and like Chopard's Mille Miglia and Pirelli's P.Zero watches, is strapped to the wrist with a rubber tire-tread strap.

You can bet the pricing is on a "if you have to ask" basis, but if you have the means and missed the 25 Zagato watches being offered, don't fret – let your bank manager do that for you. The same case design is being used on Wyler's new tourbillon, a complicated rotating form of watch movement that typically sells well into a likewise very automotive five-figure range.

Click on the image gallery below to see more. Complete press release after the jump.

[Source: Wyler Genève]

Porsche fanatics recognize the German sportscars for their engineering, less so for their design, which changes very little from one successive model to another. The company's merchandising design studio, however, is being recognized for its design prowess with another iF Product Design Award.

The product for which Porsche Design is being honored is the Worldtime P'6750 on which we reported earlier. The watch features an innovative movement, enclosed in a very Porsche-like minimalist case, that uses two windows to display the time in a second time zone and which time zone is being displayed, which can be switched at the push of a button.

This isn't the first time Porsche Design is winning the award, having taken home the prize seven times before. The citation is awarded by the International Forum Design and will be awarded this coming March at the CeBit Information Technology show, which is taking place concurrently with the Geneva auto show in nearby Hanover, Germany.

[Source: TimeZone.com and Porsche Design]

Automotive timepieces keep getting closer to the cars they're inspired by in terms of design, mechanics and price. The latest to cross our radar screen is the Quattro Valvole by Italian watchmaker Meccaniche Veloci.

If the model name sounds familiar, you're thinking back to the circa-1984 Ferrari 308 GTB/GTS Quattrovalvole, which incorporated the Italian name for the four-valve cylinder heads that the Maranello-based automaker pioneered. Meccaniche Veloci, literally "mechanical speed", recalls the still-prevalent technology with its wristwatch that features four distinct faces for tracking time in four different time zones, each with its own Swiss mechanical movement, all enclosed with titanium fixtures in a billet aluminum casing made in the same process as competition-spec pistons.

The Quattro Valvole watch is available in a wide assortment of color combinations, none of which are available without your dipping into Junior's college fund: its asking price is $5,500.

[Source: Meccaniche Veloci via Racer magazine]

There are car watches, and there are car watches. And this, boys and girls, is a car watch. The kind that will make the likes of the "Ferrari Engineered by Panarai" and "Breitling for Bentley" look like cheap marketing gimmicks.

What you see here is the Contragiri; tachometer in Italian. It's being made by one of the watchmaking industry's best kept secrets, Giuliano Mazzuoli, who just happens to be a huge Alfa Romeo fan, having raced Alfa GTAs in the 70's, created the Contragiri as a tribute to the iconic Italian automaker. It features a unique rev-counter black dial concealing the 25-jewel automatic movement with 42-hour power reserve, encased in black and white gold with sapphire crystal and revolving bezel, and held onto the wearer's wrist by a sleek black rubber strap.

Mazzuoli unveiled the Contagiri this past summer, and while he hasn't unveiled the price, it's sure to have a good number of zeros at the end. Somehow we don't think the price tag will prevent them all from selling the limited run of 500 copies, though. Only through authorized dealers, of course, but you can reserve yours on the website, or check out the Luxe.TV video by clicking here.

[Source: Giuliano Mazzuoli via Inside Line]

F1-themed watches tend to be very big, very shiny and named after a current F1 driver, or at least one living. The Hubolt Big Bang Ayrton Senna All Black Rattrapante fits just one of those categories, and we'll give you a clue: it's not the bling and it's not the pilot.

The exclusive chronograph flies in the face of fancy with its stealth-like matte black finish and black rubber strap, picking up on the contemporary trend of matte-finish cars. At the heart of the 44.5mm ceramic resin case is Hubolt's HUB44 RT mechanical movement, automatically powered and driving the full array of timing sub-dials.

This big, black muted timepiece is launching the watchmaker's foray into Brazil, Senna's home country, and the watch is the result of a partnership between the Swiss company and the Aytron Senna Institute, the foundation started by his sister Viviane. Part of the proceeds from the sale of the 500 numbered watches go to the Institute, and at $25,000 apiece, it had better be a big chunk.

[Source: Luxist]

Click image to view the high-res version, the DBS gallery

The Aston Martin DBS is one exclusive, expensive ride, with only 500 copies of the $250,000 car scheduled to be made each year. To up the exclusivity factor while also giving deep-pocketed DBS owners the ability to play James Bond, Swiss watchmaker Jaeger LeCoultre has designed a very exclusive chronograph strictly for DBS owners. The AMVOX2 chronograph has over 400 parts and costs an absolutely stunning $34,500. The timepiece, which is limited to 999 grade 5 titanium editions and 300 more exclusive Rose Gold wrist jewels, can actually open your DBS for you. Spending $35k on a good looking watch so you don't have to carry a key fob seems drastic to us poor folk, but when you've got money to burn, it's nice to pony up for items that are at least functional.

While the exclusive chronograph is an impressive piece of Swiss engineering, the best part of the equation is that the watch will likely never lose its value, and owners will undoubtedly be rewarded handsomely if they ever try to sell their prized bauble. Funny thing about a watch with 400 parts: when an autommaker over-engineers a part with too many components, it leads to more recalls and lower resale value. In a Swiss watch, a bunch of fancy parts makes it worth 1,000 Casios.

[Source: Auto News (subscription req'd)]

A quick look at any racing car tells you that association with motorsports is a precious commodity for any number of companies, especially for watchmakers. A growing number of horologers are paying top dollar to link their names with the image that motor racing projects. All the more so with high-profile vintage racing events, which add a measure of heritage to the formula.

Like Chopard, which famously sponsors the annual Mille Miglia revival race, Swiss watchmakers Blancpain recently sponsored the 2007 edition of the famous Peking to Paris classic rally, the same event after which Spyker named their Super Sport Utility Vehicle concept. This year's running started on May 27 in China, passing along the Great Wall, through Mongolia, the Steppes of Asia, the Gobi Desert, Siberia, Moscow, St Petersburg, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany before finishing in Paris on June 30.

As official timekeepers of the Peking to Paris rally, Blancpain produced two limited editions of 130 special fly-back chronographs, one with red accents and the other with yellow, the two official colors of the rally.

Blancpain (which ironically means "white bread") was founded way back in 1735, and is today run by the son of Swatch's chairman as part of the Swatch Group. The company is known for producing some of the most elaborate movements, for their deep-sea diving watches used by the US Navy and by Jacques Cousteau, and as the world's oldest watchmaker.

[Source: Blancpain and TimeZone]

Say what you will of the late John DeLorean, but when push came to shove, he never tired of searching for creative ways to promote his business interests.

One of the last initiatives he undertook was a time machine of sorts. Not quite like the one that immortalized his creation -- the stainless-steel, gull-winged DMC12 in the Back to the Future trilogy -- DeLorean Time was an initiative to sell a unique wristwatch. While you could certainly argue that any merchandising initiative – be it a timepiece or anything else – is simply another way for an automaker to raise income through alternative means, DeLorean was a little more direct about it. With the purchase of the DeLorean watch, the buyer would be entered into an unofficial contract to get first crack at the DMC2, the ill-fated sportscar which DeLorean had hoped to build before passing in 2005. By selling enough watches, DeLorean hoped, he could raise enough money to get the DMC2 into production.

Follow the jump to view a video of John DeLorean promoting the watch, or follow the link to view more photos.

[Source: Watchismo]

It seems you just can't make an exotic sportscar these days without offering a wristwatch to go with it. Bugatti's got one. Koenigsegg has two. McLaren and TAG Heuer are on their third. And Ferrari's got a whole series. Is it a shameless ploy to capitalize on the merchandizing potential of their supercars, or do their creators simply want to provide their moneyed customers with an adornment for their pampered wrists as bold and unique as the hand-made supercars in their garage? The complication, exclusivity and, if nothing else, sheer price on some of these limited-edition timepieces would seem to indicate the latter.

Enter Pagani into the fray with what seems to be the first licensed piece of merchandise the independent carmaker has produced since first releasing the original Zonda back in 1999. Made in partnership with a likewise new craftshop called Cvstos, the Zonda F chronograph draws its inspiration from its namesake supercar. The crown is patterned on the dials in the Zonda's cabin; the sub-dials on the face are arranged to mimic Pagani's signature exhaust pipes; even the rotating disc, visible through the clear case-back, recalls the Zonda's wheels.

The Cvstos Pagani Zonda F chronograph is available in pink gold, yellow gold or titanium, at an unspoken cost and availability suitable to a creation bearing the Zonda's name.

[Source: Sybarites]