The changing automotive landscape has seen many automakers look to other avenues to expand their business. Anticipating this increasing trend, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche was arguably the pioneer when he branched out of the automotive space and founded Porsche Design back in 1972. The company currently develops fashion accessories, luggage, eyewear and even home appliances under the Porsche brand.
Over the course of the last 40 years, the company also established partnerships with RIM to develop Blackberry smartphones and aligned itself with Eterna to create luxury timepieces. Now Porsche Design has decided to end its affiliation with Chinese-owned Eterna (which was formerly run by Porsche’s own holdings company, Porsche Beteiligungen GmbH) and decided to bring watch production in-house, along with former Eterna CEO Patrick Kury.
Porsche Design Timepieces AG subsidiary was founded in Switzerland as an effort to reposition the company’s watchmaking business, effectively removing the middle man. Porsche Design Timepieces will be responsible for developing and producing the exclusive timepieces and marketing and sales will be overseen by the Porsche Design Group, which is based in Ludwigsburg, Germany. The first watch series offered solely by Porsche Design will go on sale in the fourth quarter of 2014.
“By taking this step, we are continuing the successful history of Porsche Design timepieces, which began in 1972 with the iconic Chronograph I”, says Juergen Gessler, CEO of the Porsche Design Group. “We are especially happy to have acquired Patrick Kury, a watch expert who — as well as demonstrating a profound understanding of our brand — is extremely skilled and accomplished when it comes to developing watch mechanisms. Kury has already proved this by developing the Porsche Design Indicator, the most complex watch mechanism in the world.”
Porsche Design’s legendary Chronograph I was the world’s first black watch as well as the first product produced by the luxury brand. In 1972, the self-winding chronograph — a concept that had previously been inconceivable — was entirely black and provocatively plain. Eight years later Porsche Design revolutionized the watchmaking world with the first ever titanium timepiece, which was followed by the first watch to feature an aluminum case in 2000. The launch of the Indicator in 2004 combined chronograph functionality with a purely mechanical, jumping digital display — yet another watchmaking milestone.
“Porsche Design timepieces have always led the way for the entire watch industry in terms of design and concept”, says Patrick Kury, CEO of Porsche Design Timepieces AG. “As part of the new strategic realignment, we are consciously going back to the roots of Porsche Design timepieces. These revolutionized the industry in the 1970s and 1980s in terms of design and the materials used, as they included the world’s first black watch as well as the world’s first titanium watch. In the 2000s, Porsche Design timepieces boasted impressive technical highlights such as the mechanical-digital stopwatch display of the Indicator.”
The company is preparing to launch the first watch series offered solely by Porsche Design. This series is reminiscent of the distinctive characteristics of the two most successful models produced by the luxury brand, the Chronograph I and the Titanium Chronograph, which were matte black and made from titanium respectively: The first model in the series – the Porsche Design Timepiece No. 1 – heralds the era of Timepieces made by Porsche Design.
The self-winding chronograph features a case made from titanium, which has a diameter of 42 millimeters. The matt black case of the No. 1 was not painted – instead, it was coated by means of a special process. With regard to technical features, the model is equipped with a mechanical Valjoux 7750 chronograph mechanism that has a power reserve of 48 hours. The blackened sapphire crystal case back that shows the inner workings of the exclusive, energy-optimized Porsche Design rotor is a real eye-catcher. The Porsche Design Timepiece No. 1 with black rubber strap is waterproof up to a depth of 50 meters (5 ATM) and is limited to a production run of only 500 units.
