Do I really have a favorite brand? Each has its own interest and charm and each has made its contribution to the building of Ferrari partnerships.
What is interesting is the approach that each manufacturer took to the partnership with Ferrari. For Heuer and Longines, the goal was to make the Scuderia win with an innovative timekeeping system, with the sale of watches taking a back seat.
Longines watches, like the Ferrari Formula, fit perfectly with the spirit of the 1980s where it was necessary to display one’s success. Girard-Perregaux experienced the prosperous period in F1 with Michael Schumacher and Jean Todt, a partnership based on the sincere friendship between Luca di Montezemolo, president of Ferrari, and Luigi Macaluso, the CEO of the watch manufacturer.
Richard Mille, like Cabestan, have created superwatches as spectacular in watchmaking as an Enzo or an SF90 are on the automobile market. Panerai was the association of two brands with Italian roots.
Finally, Hublot was able to adapt its iconic Big Bang to Ferrari by also designing superwatches with Marannello engineers, like the spectacular MP-05 LaFerrari, as exclusive as the eponymous supercar.
However, do you have a favorite model?
Choosing a watch is impossible. I don’t have a favorite model but several! Watches linked to a particular Ferrari, such as the F40 or 250 GTO, or a particular event such as F1 victories.
As someone who appreciates technically innovative, unconventional watches, I would have a weakness – in no particular order – for these three:
– the Hublot MP-05 LaFerrari, technically and visually impressive with its time display per cylinder, its 11 interconnected barrels and its record 50-day power reserve;
– the Girard Perregaux Tribute to Enzo Ferrari paying homage to the “Commendatore” in the form of a sports QP, a grand and most complex complication;
– and finally, the Richard Mille RM UP 01, a watch unlike any other, which broke the record for thinness at the time. I could also add the Heuer Chronosplit which was the pinnacle of watchmaking technology at the time.
Anything you would like to add?
I have always had an interest in the links between the world of watches and that of automobiles, which are a strong Source of inspiration and technical innovations.
In 2010, I wrote the first book on watch/automobile partnerships (“Prestigious Watches & Automobiles”, ed. Les Presses Littéraires).
My new book is part of this lineage; this is the first book to discuss Ferrari from a “watchmaking” angle, with Ferrari watches accompanying the history of Ferrari and Scuderia Ferrari. It is also interesting to see the evolution of Ferrari watches from the 1970s to 2023.
You will find in the book some 120 watches linked to Ferrari, 90 of which are presented in detail. An originality of the book is to have associated the watches either with the celebrated Ferrari or with Ferraris from the same era (from the 1950s to 2023) in the form of a double page.
Ferrari is an inexhaustible Source of inspiration for watch manufacturers and a driving force for some who have been able to exceed their own limits to create watches as spectacular as the racing or road Ferraris.
