Are you defined by your car? Your watch? Of course not. But there's no question your values are reflected in your choices. If we're fortunate, we can choose our machines. It's our job to help you choose well, so we gathered a few of our favorite new cars and paired them with watches that echo their values… and maybe yours as well.
Ford GT / Devon Tread 2
This is the new Americana: Tech savvy. World-beating. Each represents the pinnacle of their respective design lineages.
In the case of the Devon Tread 2, that pinnacle is represented by a digital - analog hybrid that uses numbered belts instead of rotating hands. The Tread 2 has an automotive lineage as well. Creator Scott Brown's Los Angeles based design firm created the Viper-based Devon GTX sports car before making the switch to watches.
On Ford's side, the 2017 Ford GT is a pure performance machine. A 600+ horsepower, carbon fiber work of art, the GT will be motivated to incredible speeds by a twin-turbocharged, direct-injected 3.5-liter V-6. Ford says the GT will achieve the best horsepower to weight ratio on the market. It's a technological statement, but it's not done yet. An airbrake, active suspension and hollow circular taillights that serve as exhausts for hot air coming off the GT's intercoolers complete the picture. The 2017 Ford GT will serve as a homologation vehicle for an upcoming attempt at Le Mans, and it'll do so with looks that slay, as well as power and handling.
Porsche 911 / Rolex Submariner
You can't go wrong if you buy a classic. A Porsche 911 of some ilk is the answer to just about any sports car question. Likewise, the legendary Rolex Submariner.
Perhaps the most copied watch on the planet, the Rolex Submariner has classed up wrists and explored the depths since 1954. Renowned for its performance as well as its durability, early versions of the Submariner benefitted from their association with diving pioneer Jacques Cousteau. Soon thereafter, Rolex famously tested their mettle with Auguste Piccard's bathyscaphe dive of 1953 and in 1960 another specially designed Rolex rode outside the Trieste for Jacques Piccard's dive to the Challenger Deep.
Building their legacy in the same era of exploration and experimentation as Rolex, Porsche's rear-engined 911 has proven itself on every racetrack and every road surface from Monaco to Dakar. After 51 years of continuous development, the latest generation 911 benefits from great leaps in speed, safety and technology while maintaining its legendary silhouette. Stripped to the bone today's car is a 350-hp, 7-speed wonder of driveability - while at the other extreme, the recently announced 911 GT3 RS is a track focused 500-hp monster just a hair this side of street-legal.
Mazda Miata / Seiko Dive
The Mazda Miata and the Seiko Dive Watch share a common ethos: They do their jobs with outsized style and capability. That they both do so inexpensively only adds to their charm, proving that a perfect pairing doesn't have to be a pricey pairing.
Now in its 25th year of production, the Mazda MX5 is the best selling sports car in the world. And the numbers are well deserved, as the little Miata exemplifies all the values that made us fall for roadsters in the first place. Long a holdout against the bloat that consumed its rivals, the 2016 Miata actually trims weight and dimensions for its upcoming fourth generation.
The Seiko Dive Watch is steadfast as well. In Seiko's catalog of complicated and adorned brands and sub-brands, the Seiko Quartz Diver has remained pretty much the same since its introduction in 1985. Seiko's history with dive watches dates back into the 1960's, but it was the bomb-proof, mass produced and affordable Quartz Diver that will define Seiko's dive watch legacy. Like it's spendy Swiss counterparts, the Seiko has the weight and feel of quality. And like the MX5, it's handsome, thoughtful, and built from a legacy of precision and accomplishment.
BMW M3 / Sinn 240
The BMW M3 and the Sinn 240. Both are good. Both are German. Both are good and German. Each is an evolved and thoughtful rendering of good steel into elegant lines.
Either is a secret handshake, the beginning of many knowing nods of acknowledgment.
The BMW M3 is as close as we get to loving a sensible thing. Four doors, room for all. Oh, and a glorious 3.0-liter inline-six good for 424-hp and 406 lb-of torque. It all comes together under a carbon fiber roof. Sensible indeed.
Sinn traces its roots to 1961, but the elegant and contemporary bead-blasted Sinn 240 is all modernity. The 240 is the most recent of Sinn's offerings, but the self-winder joins a family that's traveled to space on the wrists of German astronauts and still includes mechanical rally timers.
Chevrolet Corvette / Breitling Emergency
The 2015 Chevrolet Corvette and the Breitling Emergency are bold, enormously capable, technologically sophisticated and both are unlikely to be used to their potential by their respective buyers. And that's a damned shame.
The $55,000 Corvette Stingray is the sports car bargain of this decade. For that you get a honking 460-hp pushrod V8, an excellent manual transmission, and enough softness inside to make the Corvette a fantastic daily driver. So fantastic in fact, that it's unlikely many Vette owners will take advantage of their track-capable suspension, instead basking in the Corvette's admirable 29-mpg EPA fuel economy rating.
Breitling's Emergency watch will probably share the same sad fate of under utilization. Besides being a typically functional timepiece, the Emergency also serves as a personal locator beacon. When activated, the watch first transmits a distress call to a low-earth satellite network, then allows rescuers to home in on its location with an entirely different radio signal. It's a marvel of technology and sadly, like the Corvette, the Breitling Emergency is more likely to be a subject of conversation on the golf course than tested at its limits.
Caterham Seven / Apple Watch
What does the latest in wearable computing have to do with an anachronistic sports car? Both pack an almighty ton of performance into a tiny thing.
The 80-hp Seven 160 is the slowest and least expensive car made by Caterham. It might also be their best, because it finds the perfect balance between simplicity and satisfaction that made the original Seven a legend.
That simplicity pairs nicely with the Apple Watch. Already an example of design and innovation, the Apple Watch is the perfect way to take up the technological slack left by a dash that would have been considered spartan even in the 1950's.
Range Rover / Omega Speedmaster
If your day is as likely to include a black tie event as it is a moon landing, there's no better watch than the Omega Speedmaster. Certified by NASA for operations in space in 1965, the Speedmaster accompanied astronaut Ed White on the first American space walk, rode Buzz Aldrin's wrist to the surface of the moon, and famously saved the hides of the Apollo 13 crew. And it looked good doing it.
The Range Rover hasn't made it as far as the moon, but the lunar surface is one of few places man has trod that the Range Rover will not. The iconic offroading luxury vehicle invented a new class of SUV on its introduction and continuous updates make the Range Rover just as relevant, and just as desirable, today.
Ferrari / Rolex Daytona
Some pairings are perfect. Matching a Ferrari and the Rolex Daytona, for instance.
Daytona has long been a brand apart inside both companies. There's no question that the fortunes of Ferrari and Rolex are deeply and improbably tied to the famous strip of Florida beach. If you're not up for flogging your Ferrari to victory at the 24-hour enduro, you can at least honor the intent that haunts the Italians and the Swiss. Special points for matching the Rosso Corsa of your car to the subtle red hashes of a Daytona Paul Newman, one of the rarest and most collectible Rolexes ever built, and also one of the most expensive.
