New Watch! • 07 Apr 2017
Ferrari Marks 70 Years By Designing A Cutting Edge Wristwatch
Watchmakers creating timepieces for carmakers happens more often than anyone would dare to count. Carmakers designing watches, however, is almost unheard of. So Baselworld 2017 was a special occasion as Hublot unveiled the Techframe Ferrari 70 Years Tourbillon, a watch designed from scratch by the Italian carmaker.
Watches with the Ferrari logo have existed for a long time, with notable past partners of Ferrari being Panerai and Girard-Perregaux. Hublot assumed the mantle in 2011, but the Techframe is no ordinary watch emblazoned with a prancing horse.
At a time when Ferrari design is arguably at its all-time best, producing one stunning car after the other, the Ferrari Design Center in Maranello took on the task of conceiving the first true Ferrari-designed watch. The Techframe wristwatch is singular in that it was created by Ferrari under the leadership of its design chief, Flavio Manzoni.
Manzoni took a purpose-focused approach to the watch. “The styling of the Techframe Ferrari 70 Years Tourbillon Chronograph,” explains Manzoni, “underlines the performance of the watch and no component is there by chance.”
The starting point of the design was the “engine”, or the monopusher chronograph tourbillon movement, around which Ferrari “freely designed a high-performance chassis”. The result is a watch case like no other: a skeleton structure 45mm in diameter and just under 15mm thick, available in titanium, King Gold or PEEK Carbon (each limited to seventy pieces).Especially relevant to Ferrari is PEEK (Polyether Ether Ketone) Carbon, a multi-layer hypoallergenic material made from particularly long carbon fibres, is light, strong and essential to contemporary Ferrari super cars.
Holding the Techframe in the hand, or better still having it on the wrist, really makes the high-tech engineering prowess of these two powerhouses tangible. The Techframe case is light and rigid as few others are; even the gold version, having been open-worked to the bare minimum.
Neat details such as a prominent Ferrari logo on the dial and a red lever-pusher for the chronograph further underscores the link between the Techframe and most famous car maker in the world.
The movement inside is the HUB6311 hand-wound tourbillon chronograph, developed and manufactured by Hublot (and based on a calibre originally designed by BNB Concept, a highly specialized movement design studio that was acquired by Hublot). It ticks away at 3 Hz and boasts 115 hours of power reserve, almost five days.
The Techframe Ferrari 70 Years Tourbillon Chronograph marks a remarkably important debut, being Ferrari’s entry to the world of watch design proper with a special timepiece that is Ferrari all the way down to the carbon strands.
For more information, please schedule an appointment with our Sales Consultant here.