Chronograph 1 All Black Numbered Edition

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche designed the original Porsche 911. When he turned to a wristwatch in 1972, he used its dashboard as a model. The result was a chronograph: a watch that tells the time and also works as a stopwatch. There was plenty of information to fit onto its face, and he wanted it to be read quickly. The All Black Numbered Edition, introduced in 2022, brings that design into a modern watch.

According to Porsche's account, the car company was the new design studio's first customer. It wanted a watch for selected employees. The Chronograph I subsequently went on sale through Porsche dealerships. Its connection to the car was there in the arrangement of the instruments: white markings on a black face, with red used for the stopwatch's seconds hand.

The long red hand does not run all the time. It starts when the stopwatch is switched on; ordinary seconds continue on the small dial at the left. White hands show the hour and minute, while two other small dials record the minutes and hours being timed. Color helps distinguish the different jobs without separating them onto different instruments.

Black extended beyond the face to the case and bracelet. On this modern version, both are titanium beneath a black titanium-carbide coating; the original used steel. At 40.8 millimeters across and a little over 14 thick, the new watch is still a substantial object. Its bracelet does not frame the black face with bright metal. The white markings remain the strongest contrast.

“Numbered” describes a continuing series. In 2022, Porsche Design announced a maximum of 1,000 a year, not a single batch of 1,000. The modern construction is easier to see from behind. A sapphire window reveals the mechanism and the rotor that turns with the wearer's movement to wind it. The rotor is black too, with lighter metalwork visible beneath it.