Just five months ago, in July 2014, Porsche Design Group opened a new dimension of the company’s history with the founding of Porsche Design Timepieces. This new product has been conceptualized after years of successful collaboration with renowned watchmakers, and will be the first time where the luxury brand will present its own new watch models, Timepiece No.1, and the Chronograph Titanium Limited Edition, to be launched on the market starting mid-2015.
Timepiece No. 1 is the design of Ferdinand Alexander Porsche; its color is black. For Mr. Porsche, according to the Porsche Design Group, his goal “was to create a watch for the car. It had to be black like the speedometer and tachometer of the Porsche 911, because it doesn’t dazzle you when you read the time.”
Porsche Design Group’s, creative process begins in Austria at the Porsche Design Studio in Zell am See, where the design spirit of Ferdinand Alexander Porsche still resonates. Designer Christian Schwamkrug worked together with F. A. Porsche on original watch designs back in the 1970s. And with the latest model of watch, Mr. Schwamkrug hopes the new Porsche Design timepieces will be understood not as a retro model, but as homage to its classic forerunner, and to F.A. Porsche himself.
The history of Porsche Design chronographs is a tale of commitment to the substance of technical advancements, as these timepieces ushered in a new material in the field of watchmaking: titanium. Again, an idea of F. A. Porsche, and a material that plays a role in the current collection of timepieces by Porsche Design: the Chronograph Titanium Limited Edition series.
For Roland Heiler, who heads the Design Studio in Zell am See, the watch displaying all time zones bears yet another crucial dimension: “Due to its unconventional look, this watch elicits very different impressions. And that is how Porsche Design found its way back to the roots – the original ideas of F.A Porsche — from which future Porsche Design watches will emerge.”
Mr. Heiler also hints at what the coming years will bring. “They are watches designed for lifelong use from the very first stage of development,” he said, and added, “They represent a luxurious, but not opulent lifestyle.”
