Cars and watches are two perfectly legal addictions that can make you very happy, and/or very poor, quite fast. Then again, this is a free world and a good sports car deserves an equally alluring wristwatch to go with it.
Automakers and timepiece manufacturers have been collaborating for many years. That goes not only for high-end exotics like Ferraris and McLarens, but also for more accessible performance machinery like the Alpine A110, which has gained a rather exquisite timepiece of its own.
Crafted by the Swiss watchmakers at Tissot, the Alpine On Board series is offered in both automatic and quartz versions. Either way, they bear the same design, and can be either worn on the wrist or detached from the strap and placed in the dashboard.
Both models are encased in 45 millimeters of 316L stainless steel and are water-resistant to 10 bar (100 meters or 328 feet). They feature black dials with blue and orange hands in tribute to the automobile they’re designed to accompany, and perforated leather straps – the quartz version with a standard buckle, and the automatic version with a folding clasp and Valjoux A05.H31 mechanical movement with 60-hour power reserve.
The most engaging feature for Alpine drivers, though, may be the ability to remove the watch from its strap and mount it to the dashboard, next to the infotainment display – particularly good for measuring lap times, especially with the automatic model’s push-button chronograph function.
No word on pricing, but given the manufacturers involved, we’d venture they’re probably much more affordable than the watches that Bell & Ross makes, for example, for the associated Renault F1 team, or Porsche Design’s creations for its automaking division – not to mention the ones Parmigiani produces for Bugatti or Breitling for Bentley.