You have to buy a Ford GT to be able to buy this watch.Autodromo
- Autodromo has collaborated with Ford on a special-edition watch.
- Only Ford GT supercar owners can buy it.
- But Autodromo has also produced a series of GT-evoking watches for $700 each that recall the carmaker’s 2016 win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Autodromo is a cool lifestyle and design company, based in New York, that’s run by motoring enthusiast Bradley Price. Known mainly for watches that are deft updates of classic timepieces with motorsport associations, Autodromo is widely admired throughout the automotive world.
Now the company has joined with Ford (where Price has many fans) to release a very limited-edition “Owners Watch” for folks lucky enough to buy a $400,000 GT supercar. The roadgoing version of Ford’s 2016 Le Mans winner, these machines will be produced in limited numbers: only 1,000 through the 2020 model year.
The watch for this group can be tweaked depending on how an owner has kitted out his or her GT. It will also be powered by an automatic Swiss chronograph movement. The price hasn’t yet been released, but since only Ford GT owners can buy it, it obviously starts at $400,000.
Autodromo is also doing a series of “Endurance Chronographs” that feature references to Ford’s Le Mans-winning cars. For example, you can get a watch that evokes the number 2 Ford GT40 that captured the 1966 crown at the famous French 24-hour race. But you can also buy a timepiece that carries the red-white-and-blue livery and the number — 68 — of the GT that drivers Joey Hand, Dirk Müller, and Sébastien Bourdais piloted to victory in 2016.
That’s some old-school motoring!Autodromo
These pieces are $695 and are currently available for pre-order, shipping in December. Autodromo has created five different designs.
I wrote a book about the Ford GT and the 2016 Le Mans win, so I’m seriously tempted to pick one up. At 40 millimeters, it’s a good size — not too big, not too small — and it’s related to my previous favorite Autodromo watch, the Prototipo. The movement is a unique Japanese “Meca-Quartz” made by Seiko. Not a true automatic, but with features that fans of automatic or mechanical chronographs appreciate, such as a flyback second hand.
A couple of years back when showing me a special edition of this watch, Price explained to me that he wanted to make a vintage-esque motorsports chrono with an updated, reliable movement so that fans of the golden era of racing could have a watch reminiscent of the time period that wouldn’t be a hassle to own (vintage watches, lovely as they are, can be ironically time-consuming and high-maintenance to own).
Autodromo also designs sunglasses, driving gloves, and watch straps. Check them all out here.