Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur , even to the point of designing a one-off vehicle .
This experience has now been expanded with the ability to design a Porsche Design chronograph based on an individual ’ s personal taste or Porsche 992 vehicle configurations . It ’ s an experience that ultimately ends with the customer taking ownership of a Porsche they designed themselves .
“ As with the online car-design process , the watch is digitally visualized down to the smallest details and customizations are shown to the customer in real time . The customer begins by selecting the case of the watch and then continues choosing from more than 1.5 million configuration possibilities ,” explains Gerhard J . Novak , General Manager Timepieces , Porsche Design Group .
“ Once the customer has finished designing the chronograph , an individualized configuration code is created , and from there it is sent , or brought in , to any authorized U . S . Porsche dealer where the order is placed . Delivery takes between eight to twelve weeks .”
The rendering of the watch is based on CAD data from the designers at Studio F . A . Porsche in Zell am See , Austria , and the Porsche Design engineers in Solothurn , Switzerland .
“ It quickly became clear that these custom components had to be interchangeable without the need to develop a new watch each time ,” explains Rolf Bergmann , Managing Director , Porsche Design Timepieces
AG . “ Offering a wide range of options while manufacturing small quantities of custom-built timepieces is possible thanks to the sequential production process transferred from Porsche sports car production . The principle of zero-defect tolerance was a necessary prerequisite for the implementation of a watch concept like this .”
A NEW ENGINE Key among the components of the customer-designed watch is an entirely new engine .
Porsche Design developed a new movement to serve as the engine for the online-designed timepiece . The new Caliber WERK 01.100 is a COSCcertified chronograph movement that now enters serial production for the program .
But the WERK 01.100 offers Porsche Design customers more than simply its novelty .
“ For the first time customers can individualize a part of a Porsche Design COSC-certified movement by choosing the winding rotor that features the various wheel designs of the latest-generation Porsche 911 ,” Bergmann says .
“ The color on the rotor edge can also be customized to match the color on the outer edge of the wheels of the 992 ,” he adds .
Customers select their choice of rotor design after choosing which case to place it into . Porsche Design offers a 42mm case based on the one it
46 | INTERNATIONAL WATCH | WINTER 2021