This is a guest post from Kevin Mack at Fly High Finance. If you’re in the military and want to build a plan for financial independence then sign up here.
This is a guest post from Kevin Mack at Fly High Finance. If you’re in the military and want to build a plan for financial independence then sign up here.When one thinks of racing watches, one name immediately comes to mind:
Steve McQueen
His association with auto racing, motorcycles, leather jackets and pretty much everything “cool” made him a serious trendsetter. Being a box-office star didn’t hurt either.
When he set out to make Le Mans, a fictionalized account of the real 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, he was presented with several watch choices by the head of Swiss Heuer.
He selected the Heuer Monaco and immortalized it.
Racing Watch Style
So far in this series we’ve looked at field, aviation and dive watches. With their military heritage, those styles tend to look very utilitarian.
Racing watches, not being bound by uniformity, tend to be much flashier.
You’ll have far more exotic color and style options when selecting a racing watch than say, a field watch. Just remember that the flashier the watch, the more casual it becomes and dress accordingly.
Racing Watch Essentials
There are two features which define a good race watch. A chronograph and a tachymeter.
A chronograph is a watch with a separate stopwatch function, usually featuring an extra sub-dial (or three) and pushers at the 2 and 4 o’clock positions to start/stop and reset the second hand.
A tachymeter is a type of bezel used to make time and distance calculations. By measuring the number of seconds to travel a known distance, the outer markings will show speed in the unit measured per hour.
Sound complicated? Try this example: If you started timing at zero seconds and went a mile in 30 seconds, you would look down and see 120 at the 6 o’clock (or 30 second) position on the bezel. The watch is telling you that your speed is 120 miles per hour.
It doesn’t matter what unit of measure you use, the tachymeter still reads units per hour. Obviously that can be useful to a racer calculating laps per hour at a track.
The Steve McQueen Monaco
The Heuer Monaco that was featured in Le Mans is still produced by Heuer (now TAG Heuer). There are several versions, with the Calibre 11 being the most similar to the McQueen version.
It has all the features you’d expect: Swiss automatic movement, sapphire crystal, chronograph, but it comes in a very distinctive square case.
TAG Heuer has an extensive line of racing watches besides the Monacos. The Carrera line has the same racing roots as the Monaco but in a more modern and aggressive style.
The Rolex Daytona
The Daytona is Rolex’s racing chronograph. They start at $12,000 but there are variants that are among the most sought after watches on Earth and they are also associated with a movie star turned racer.
Paul Newman favored Rolex Daytonas with contrasting dials and subdials. The so-called panda Daytona for their black and white faces are the most desired of these.
No longer in production, they routinely sell at auction for several hundred thousand dollars. Naturally, there are more fakes in existence than real ones.
The Seiko Sportura
If like most of us, you aren’t going buy a racing watch that costs more than a race car then you should check out the Sportura line from Seiko.
Featuring solar powered quartz movements, bold colors, a large face, and sapphire crystal and coming in at under $500, you’re sure to find one you like. I’m partial to the SSC274 with its rose gold and black finish.
Omega Speedmaster
You may recall the so-called Moon Watch from the Man’s Guide to Buying Aviation Watches, but Ed White’s famous Omega was actually a racing chronograph.
The Speedmaster includes the usual Omega refinements, in-house automatic movement, sapphire crystal, but the style choices range from the conservative to the bold.
Torgoen
Torgoen is a Swiss watch manufacturer that started out making aviation watches. They’ve since branched out and now offer racing watches.
The T18 line has all the bells and whistles, but what I really like about them is the dial. They’ve taken the standard three sub-dial chronograph face and detailed it to resemble the crankshaft and cylinder heads of a V-configuration racing engine.
Adding a Racing Watch to Your Collection
As you can see, there is a broader range of options when it comes to racing watches than with any style we’ve discussed thus far.
Some racing watches could work with business casual attire, while others are sport watches and might not even be appropriate for casual wear.
The important thing to remember is that racing watches are designed to compliment race cars and their drivers.
Making a statement, being loud, is kind of the point.
Don’t be afraid to go bold.
Next time, we’ll wrap up the series by discussing dress watches.
This is a guest post from Kevin Mack at Fly High Finance. If you’re in the military and want to build a plan for financial independence then sign up here.
