Porsche Design & Hodinkee Reveal Limited Edition Chronograph 1 Collab
A need for speed and style.
An icon’s status and instant recognizability tends to endure across multiple mediums, and the meeting of the minds between the auto world and the world of luxury watches seems plenty apt. The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 takes its cues from the Porsche 911, after all, and Hodinkee just put its own spin on the famed timepiece.
Hodinkee has previously worked with giants of the luxury watch industry, including on a limited-edition Hublot timepiece, but it’s the first time Porsche Design has teamed up with the watch publisher, designer and marketplace. The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 Limited Edition for Hodinkee carries on the legacy of the iconic Porsche 911 by nodding to “icons that provide pure function in a tactile, powerful form,” Hodinkee and Porsche Design said in a statement.
The special-edition chronograph harkens back to the design specs of F.A. Porsche and his original design of the Chronograph 1 as a timepiece for Porsche employees, right down to a dial using the original Porsche Design logo and font. However, subtle design updates abound, including a red “H” 6-o’clock marking in a nod to Hodinkee. The watch is also crafted to exacting Porsche specifications at its Swiss watch factory, while the 40.8mm titanium case boasts a striking matte-black titanium-carbide coating.
Customizable touches abound, including a 3-o’clock day-date window that can be purchased in either English or Japanese (a nod to Porsche and Hodinkee fandom in Japan itself). Three sub-dials, like other models of the Porsche Design Chronograph 1, track hours, minutes and seconds, with another tweak “under the hood,” as Porsche Design and Hodinkee said. Fittingly, the watch now runs on the Porsche Design Calibre WERK 01.140 movement for added accuracy.
The partnership is a milestone for Hodinkee and an ideal design fit for Porsche’s watchmaking outfit, said Ben Clymer, Executive Chairman and Founder of Hodinkee.“In a way, Porsche and Porsche Design represent a core part of the Hodinkee DNA, so this Chronograph 1 collaborative project is something we’ve been dreaming about for the better part of a decade,” with Clymer adding that spending “the last few years working on this has been incredible.”
The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 for Hodinkee, given its intricate specs, exclusive production process and limited-edition design details, is suitably rarified: Only 350 units are available globally, with Porsche Design General Manager Gerhard Novak noting that “we are already eagerly awaiting the next chapters of our common journey.” If future timepiece collaborations between Hodinkee and Porsche Design are as streamlined, performance-minded and forward-thinking yet classically positioned, the best results might be yet to come.
