The number of car companies who have a relationship with a watch company is growing each year, for example Bentley with Breitling and Mercedes-AMG with IWC Schaffhausen.
Open any car magazine and you are bombarded with advertisements from all the high-end watch manufacturers doing their best to convince you that their product is the most stylish or technologically advanced.
Watches and cars are both stylish and beautifully engineered pieces of machinery that make a statement about who we are. Their development over the past century has been a testament to the human desire for constant improvement. So it is understandable that many parallels can be drawn between the two.
Here are my six parallels that can be made between watches and cars that show why they are both inextricably linked.
STATUS SYMBOLS
The car you drive and the watch you wear can both be used as status symbol to communicate to the world how well you are doing in life. Driving a Ferrari and wearing a Rolex, then you have most likely done well for yourself or you are drowning in debt while trying to look the part.
A $5 watch from the local flea market and driving a second hand banger, then you are doing it tough or do not care about what others think about you and spend your money wisely or keep it in the bank.
FASHION STATEMENTS
Cars can be a fashion item, just like the clothes or the watch you wear. Some people prefer modern and precise instruments that are constructed from the latest in high-tech materials.
Others hanker for vintage and classic, something with a particular foible that only an owner would know like how much a watch slows over the day or why a car just stops.
All that is old is new again or so they say
TIME
Watches keep time and car companies are obsessed with 0-100km/hr times or lap times.
Every major motorsport category has an ‘Official Time Keeper’. For Formula 1 it’s currently Rolex and the WRC has Certina. Then you have the relationships between Formula 1 teams and watch manufacturers like Scuderia Ferrari and Hublot or Mercedes-AMG and IWC Schaffhausen.
Your Mercedes-AMG comes with an IWC
SIMPLE JOBS
At the heart of it the job of both is simple, a watch needs to tell the time and a car needs to get us from A to B. But this doesn’t mean that they are simple machines or that we cannot form a relationship with them.
THEY HAVE SOME FUNCTIONS THAT WILL NEVER BE USED
For example the Breitling Emergency models have a dual frequency distress beacon that can be activated in an emergency. This beacon not only launches the distress signal but also guides rescuers to your location. I think this is a fabulous feature in a watch, but while you are on the daily commute along a congested motorway it’s unlikely you will ever need to use it.
Similarly modern supercars are becoming more and more advanced. With variable settings for transmission, dampers and engine response to name just a few. The knowledgeable driver may tinker with these settings until they find the sweet spot, but most us will simply put the car into one of the pre-set configurations and drive.
THE BEST ONES ARE MADE ON THE CONTINENT
This one will most likely spark some debate, but in my opinion the best watches are made in Switzerland and the best cars are made in Italy and Germany.
Do you agree or disagree with my observations? Have I missed anything obvious? Feel free to continue the conversation in the comments section.
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Comments (3)
I have a Certina 😛
I love watches! I know another one: Both can get really expensive as you go for the exclusive handmade stuff! Also, both (classic) cars and watches are things that are often carried over from generation to generation.
True :)