Porsche Design

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche founded his own design studio in 1972, after designing the original 911. Watches became part of the new business from the beginning. To make them, the studio turned to companies with skills and factories it did not yet possess.

Orfina made the early watches. IWC and then Eterna carried the watchmaking through later periods. Across those partnerships, Porsche Design could retain a recognizable appearance while the organizations making its watches changed. The black chronograph began with a steel case; later work brought titanium into the collection.

In 2014, Porsche Design established its own timepiece company in Solothurn, Switzerland. It was now taking responsibility for manufacturing as well as design.

The move to a larger factory in Grenchen brought a return to a familiar address. The former Eterna building had already housed licensed production of Porsche Design watches. Production moved there in 2025, and the new manufacture formally opened in March 2026.

A watch company created in 2014 was occupying a building from 1955, making a design first shown in 1972. The continuity was in the watches; the means of making them had changed several times.