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The 1972 Porsche Design Chronograph 1 introduced the world to the idea of a “blacked-out” watch, one in which both the case and the dial are colored black. Ferdinand “Butzi” Porsche, a member of the famed car manufacturing dynasty, designer of the beloved 911, and founder of Porsche Design, picked a steel case and bracelet style from watchmaker Orfina’s catalog which the brand then coated using physical vapor deposition.
The original remit for such a coating was glare reduction, though as we now know well, there’s something undeniably cool-looking about an all-black tool watch. But it wasn’t just the black design that made the original Chronograph 1 a success: Its inner base-1,000 tachymeter scale and day-date display, powered by the automatic Valjoux 7750 (and later by the Lemania 5100) movement, provided plenty of utility, while pops of color in the handset and luminous indices made for an aesthetically compelling dial.
Three years after the debut of the all-black Chronograph 1, Porsche Design released a stainless steel version that offered a more conventional spin on the daring original and later formed the basis of several mil-spec watches. Now, exactly 50 years later, the company is reissuing that edition, this time in lightweight titanium with a matching bracelet. Limited to 350 pieces, the Chronograph 1 1975 Limited Edition is being launched in coordination with Watches of Switzerland, which will function as Porsche Design’s exclusive third-party watch retail partner for the U.S. market.
For those who love the Chronograph 1’s proportions, dial, and bracelet but don’t jive with the all-black look, the new version provides an easy-wearing alternative that you can conveniently try on at a Watches of Switzerland location as well as at Porsche Design stores.
Marking the first time that uncoated titanium has been used on a Porsche Design timepiece not made exclusive to owners of limited-edition Porsche cars, the new watch features a matte-black dial that references 911 dashboard instruments. White printing within the tachymeter scale, indices, chronograph totalizers, and dual-language German/English day and date windows provide a high-contrast, exceptionally legible look to the dial, while the current Porsche Design wordmark coupled with the brand’s historical logo provide a nice mix of vintage and contemporary styling. Meanwhile, the watch’s bead-blasted, tonneau-shaped profile, pump pushers, signed crown, and matching bracelet with fine-adjustment clasp are retained from the 1970s original.
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“I called my wife. ‘I crashed the car,’ I told her. She asked if I was okay. ‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘but the car’s not.’”Measuring 40.8mm wide and 14.15mm thick, the Chronograph 1 1975 Limited Edition is powered by the Porsche Design WERK 01.240, a Valjoux 7750-based automatic movement with flyback capability, a 4-Hz beat rate, 25 jewels, and a power reserve of 48 hours, which runs a triple-register readout with a small-seconds display as well as 30-minute and 12-hour totalizers.
Flipping the case over reveals a special “Flyback Automatic” engraving as well as the year “1975” and the piece’s individual edition number. Finally, each watch is presented in a special box with a commemorative plaque featuring a matching edition number as well as Professor F.A. Porsche’s engraved signature.
Limited to 350 pieces at $9,650 each, the Chronograph 1 1975 Limited Edition is the perfect companion piece to a Porsche 911, to be sure. But seeing as it offers much of the utilitarian-yet-elegant aesthetics of one of the company’s sports cars at a fraction of the cost, it might also be the perfect mechanical device for someone who isn’t necessarily inclined to shell out for a 911.
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