Timepieces for the motoring mad

If anyone had told me a week ago that I’d return from a trip to Daventry feeling dazed and amazed, I would never have believed them. But that was before I saw behind the scenes at an anonymous industrial unit in Woodford Halse which, it turns out, is the inconspicuous UK centre of ops for US Porsche 911 super-restorer Singer Vehicle Design.

Within this building, dozens of 964 series cars are being meticulously transformed by British craftspeople into what many believe to be the sine qua non of 911 restomods, the most extreme model being the DLS Turbo inspired by the 934/5 endurance racers of the late ’70s. It’s limited to 99 units – and costs around £2.4m.

Singer Vehicle Design’s HQ is in Torrance, California, set up in 2009 by Norfolk-born Rob Dickinson, the former singer and songwriter with the British rock band Catherine Wheel. His love of the 911 led him to found the business after his modified 1969 car – Brown Bomber – incited numerous enquiries from Hollywood Porsche enthusiasts.

During the intervening years, Singer Vehicle Design has established a stellar global reputation. It has become a truism that people who like interesting and valuable cars often like interesting watches. So it’s no surprise that, a few years ago, Geneva-based watch designer Marco Borraccino found himself writing a note of praise to Singer’s workshops – and discovered in Dickinson a soul mate who was as enthusiastic about horology as Borraccino was about cars.

The pair started Singer Reimagined in 2013, which creates timepieces to the same level of perfection that Singer Vehicle Design builds cars. The initial model, launched in 2017, took the form of an unconventional watch, Track 1, with a central chronograph display and jumping hour and minute indicators.

Singer Reimagined has since produced several variations, followed by other models such as the Flytrack and Divetrack – and now the one that many will regard as its best effort yet: the Heritage Collection chronograph. It features an original Valjoux 236 hand-wound chronograph movement from the ’70s, inset, that is stripped down and rebuilt before being installed in new 38.3mm steel cases.

If you want one, however, you’ll need to be quicker off the mark than a DLS Turbo – due to the limited number of vintage movements available, just 100 will be made.

Singer Reimagined Heritage Collection Chronograph, approx £17,500. singerreimagined.com

Through its ownership of Swiss manufacturer Buren, US-rooted Hamilton (in partnership with Breitling and Heuer) created the first automatic chronograph movement in 1969. Hamilton deployed the mechanism in a driver’s watch, the Intra-Matic, which is now reprised in this PVD-treated 40mm version – designed for “embracing the freedom of the road”. There are three versions, all with black dials but with detailing in white, yellow or orange. The relevant hue is echoed in the perforated leather rally strap.

Hamilton Intra-matic, £2265. hamiltonwatch.com

Ultra high-end brand Richard Mille chose the Chinese GP to unveil its latest watch made in collaboration with Ferrari – the RM43-01 Ferrari Tourbillon Split-Seconds Chronograph. Just 150 will be made, half in titanium and half in Carbon TPT, with each featuring numerous details inspired by the marque. These include a strap based on the pattern of a Purosangue’s seats and a Prancing Horse engraved on a plate in the shape of a wingtip of the 499P Hypercar. It follows Richard Mille’s first Ferrari model, the UP-01 of 2022.

Richard Mille RM43-01 Ferrari, from £1m. richardmille.com