Photo by Jeff Crawford, as seen in Ocean Drive Magazine. Parmigiani, Porsche Design, Bulgari.
Luxury watches named for automobiles are the hottest status symbol yet. While car aficionados love those luxurious sports cars, those cars can’t accompany the owner into board meetings or outings. It’s time to ditch the garage and wear a bit of the auto-inspired luxury world on the wrist — and you can do this in a host of price ranges. At the high-end, the Parmigiani Bugatti Vitesse watch ($328,000) houses the PF372 hand-wound movement with a two-plane caliber to offer the time on the side of the watch for ease of use while driving. The moment consists of 333 individual parts. Crafted in titanium, the watch is built with six anti-reflective sapphire crystals – no easy feat. The crown is set with a lapis lazuli cabochon. Each watch is individually numbered. The Bulgari Octo Maserati Watch ($32,100) is crafted in stainless steel and features a bold 45mm case. It offers an automatic quadro retrograde movement. The four retrograde indicators display the date and the seconds, and the chronograph hours and minute. When they have fulfilled their cycles, the hands on each of these four displays immediately flies back to its starting position to do it all again. This Porsche Design 6360 Flat Six Chronograph Automatic ($5,870) is crafted stainless steel with a PVD black finish on the case and bracelet. The dial is carbon fiber to emulate the high-tech automobile influences. The watch features a tachymeter scale engraved on the inner bezel to measure speeds of 30 miles to 205 mph. (Portions of this article appear in Ocean Drive Magazine and online at oceandrive.com/watches.)
