Hot Laps with Two Motorsports Chronographs

• Motorsports and luxury watches are a natural pair; this goes double for chronograph watches.
• Girard-Perregaux and Jaeger-LeCoultre offer luxury chronographs that can cut it in the heat of competition.
• The G-P R&D 01 features reversed and inverted pushers with central chrono minutes & seconds.
• The JLC Amvox II DBS features an articulated case with dial “trigger.” There are no chrono pushers.
• These are the ultimate memorabilia for fans of motorsports and luxury watches.
• Both watches are exclusive. 999 units of the DBS exist; this R&D 01 is one of 20.
• watchuwant.com value saves $ for gas

In case you missed this June’s 24 Hours of LeMans, here’s the summary; watchmakers and their brand managers won, big time. At this year’s French epic alone, Oris, Chopard, Blancpain, Richard Mille, Rolex, Tudor, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and probably a half-dozen others crowded every inch of rolling billboard that Porsche, Audi, and Aston Martin could muster.

As with beer and pickup trucks’ 48-0 winning streak at the Super Bowl, watchmakers won this race before the clock even started.

In other words, devotees of the motor sports lifestyle have no shortage of themed luxury watches from which to choose. But what about actual drivers and pit crew? Many collectors of luxury watches also log serious seat time. Is it too much to ask for a useful motorsports timepiece -especially a chronograph – that brings the goods when Nomex goes on and the red mist sets in?

Not if Girard-Perregaux and Jaeger-LeCoultre have any presence on pit row…

The Girard-Perregaux R&D 01 motorsports chronograph is a watch developed for auto racers by a true campione of their own fraternity. The late Luigi Macaluso was more than G-P’s President and Chairman from 1992 to 2010; he was the ultimate retiree. As the 1972 European Rally champion and President of the Italian Motorsports Federation, Macaluso only came to the watch industry following the end of his active involvement in automotive competition.

Macaluso directed G-P’s technical team to produce a watch that updated the switchgear and timing displays of the motorsports chronograph. While romanticized in the lore of auto racing, the basic chronograph design is a relic little changed since the 1950s. The R&D 01 was designed around two principles: ease of use and visibility.

Ease of use means that a driver wearing gloves or a team engineer with greasy hands can operate the chronograph without effort. Most motorsports chronographs employ pushers to cycle the mechanism, but who can operate the Tic-Tac-sized controls of a Rolex Daytona while wearing fireproof mitts? And what about those screw-down collars that make quick access impossible even with bare hands?

The R&D 01 shifts the pushers to the left side of its case, where a right-handed user can cycle the timer with his thumb alone. Better still, the R&D 01 inverts the traditional chronograph pushers top-to-bottom, so there is no chance of accidentally fat-fingering the reset pusher while reaching for the start/stop. When you’re 23 hours into a 24-hour race and you reach for the trigger, these measures make the difference.

Visibility is another key to the R&D 01’s success. TAG Heuer’s Carrera chronograph, for example, is a charming piece, but the pace of auto racing has evolved since that “old timer’s” 1963 debut. Today, an F1 car could cover half of the front straight at Silverstone in the time it takes to read an aspirin-sized subdial on a Carrera.

Macaluso consulted extensively with active racers during the development of the R&D 01, and the payoff was a centralized chronograph minute companion to the chrono seconds hand. With the two most important timing elements clearly visible and differentiated by color-coded triangular pointers, the R&D 01 keeps pit crew and drivers alike focused on whatever they’re timing – and not on the timer itself. An ultra high-contrast dial with its yellow, red, white, and black color palette enables easy reading at a glance.

Other thoughtful details abound. Mindful of the number of 24-hour enduro events on the global motor sports calendar, Girard-Perregaux’s watchmakers included a 24-hour dial that tracks the first and second phases of an event. In the spirit of the 1960s “Super Compressor” dive watches, a rotating internal bezel permits timing of an additional interval using the hour and minute hands. The bezel’s internal location prevents accidental bumps or swipes from dislodging the calibrated ring.

This variant of the R&D 01 is a rare limited edition of an already exceptional watch. Issued in a series of 20 units to mark the 2006 20th anniversary of East Coast Jewelry, the yellow dial, matching strap, and commemorative signed caseback are exclusive to this model. This limited edition R&D 01 represents a tremendous value with appeal to motorsports enthusiasts, Girard-Perregaux collectors, and connoisseurs of exotic luxury watches.

Jaeger-LeCoultre forged its motorsports legacy long before the “Cosmograph” became the “Daytona” and F1 “brand ambassadors” became fixtures in watchmaker ad copy.

Through its Jaeger instrument division, JLC (then LeCoultre) outfitted many of the original 1920’s “sports” cars – so named because they could be driven to the track and used for motorsports. The line between Aston Martin road and race cars didn’t exist, and both applications featured Jaeger dashboard instruments. This relationship endured through intervening decades into the 21st century, when, for the first time, an Aston Martin logo appeared on a JLC rather than the other way around.

The 2007 Amvox II DBS chronograph tackled the same challenge of “gloved and greasy” chronograph operation as the R&D 01, but JLC’s solution was radically different and unique in watchmaking history. While G-P moved the pushers around the case, Jaeger eliminated them entirely. Reasoning that the bigger the target, the better, JLC created an articulated case that pivots on ball bearings. Push the crystal at 12 o’clock, and the chronograph starts; repeat the motion to stop the timer; a tap at 6 o’clock resets the mechanism.

Even better, JLC guards against accidental inputs by equipping the DBS with a sliding lever at 9 o’clock that locks the chronograph, locks the reset, or enables both controls.

Anything but a sterile tool watch, this DBS is designed as an homage to 90 years of shared history between Jaeger and Aston. A polished and knurled crown recalls the oversized gas caps of the 1959 LeMans-winning Aston Marting DBR-1/3 driven by Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori.

The black dial with its white numerals, 60 minute hash marks, and concentric tracks deliberately references the Jaeger dash instruments that accompanied the classic Bond-era Astons of the 1960s. At 6 o’clock, a skeletonized dial segment reveals red PVD chronograph-reset hammers that evoke the exposed red brake calipers of modern Astons, including the 2014 LeMans “GTE-AM” class-winning V8 Vantage.

The DBS improves on the features of the 2006 Amvox II by adding a “constant” seconds indicator at 6, a skeletonized center dial, and a much more substantial leather strap. And it’s rare. Between 2006 and 2010, combined production of all Amvox II variants amounted to less than 3,800 units; this DBS in titanium is one of only 999 examples worldwide.

Offered by watchuwant.com with a Jaeger-LeCoultre box set and factory user’s manual, this DBS represents an historic JLC model and the ultimate collector’s piece for Aston Martin owners.

When watch collectors head to the races, they have plenty of options. But those who actually step beyond the paddock cordons, strap-on the five pointed belts, and don fireproof suits need timers to match.