A FERRARI FOR THE WRIST

Well, it finally happened. Ferrari has a new watch partnership with Richard Mille. The ultra-high-end watchmaker has been sponsoring F1 teams and drivers for years. Richard Mille appropriately uses the tagline, “a racing machine for the wrist.” Haas, Alfa Romeo and McLaren drivers have been sporting RM watches in and out of the cockpit while legendary commentator, Martin Brundle, wears an RM during his grid walk. Richard Mille has made special, limited edition watches for F1 personalities such as Jean Todt, Felipe Massa and Alain Prost (the Prost watch was designed for cycling). RM watches are made with F1-type cutting edge technology and space-age materials and designed to withstand the impacts of extreme sports. An RM watch was worn by an NFL player during an actual game. Pro golfers play tournaments while wearing RM timepieces. Tennis stars have done the same. With such a high tech, high price and high profile, it was inevitable that RM would team up with Ferrari. I am quite excited to see this new partnership play out.To get more news about panerai ferrari replica, you can visit paneraireplica.co official website.

Back in the late 1990s, I had yet to move to Montreal. I was at school about two hours away. I would visit Montreal for shopping, movies and, of course, the Grand Prix. On one visit to Montreal, I was walking down Sainte-Catherine street with my friends when a particular vision stopped me dead in my tracks. In a store window, there was a Girard-Perregaux watch with a Ferrari logo on the dial. And I still remember the price tag- $9,995. A few things were going on here. First, we had a Ferrari watch and Ferrari was an all-consuming passion at this point in my life. Second, we had a watch costing 10 grand, which was unthinkable (for me) at the time. I was just getting interested in watches back then and the idea of a 10k watch was strange and exciting. A few ideas were born that day. There was a dream of owning a Ferrari watch. There was a dream of owning a very expensive watch. And there was a dream of owning something connected to the world of Formula 1. Little did I know that my own blog about watches would one day get me INSIDE the Ferrari garage at the Grand Prix!… I would imagine that many WatchPaper readers are like me. I bet some of you are dreaming of (or saving for) a Ferrari. And until that becomes possible, you would like a nice wristwatch that somehow represents Ferrari or has some connection to the famed Maranello dream factory. You are searching for your “Ferrari for the wrist.” So let’s discuss Ferrari watches and look at some options. Until last year, the official watch of Ferrari was Hublot. That partnership began in 2012 and saw Hublot sponsor the Ferrari team and drivers. When I was in the Ferrari garage in 2018, the top Ferrari brass, including Laval native Gino Rosato, were all wearing Hublot watches. The drivers, of course, wore Hublot watches for official public appearances such as press conferences and interviews. Hublot logos were placed on the Ferrari cars and on the drivers’ racing suits. Hublot had a range of Ferrari watches and many of them are probably still available at AD’s. These watches were not exactly elegant, although they were quite high-end and featured the famous Prancing Horse logo. With price tags in the $30,000 range, Hublot Ferrari watches are out of reach for most people.

With this in mind, Ferrari had launched a line of watches by Movado for the mass market. These watches are fun and colourful, but not exactly high end. Most models use inexpensive quartz movements, although I have seen at least one automatic model, which is really quite nice. The Movado Ferrari watches are sold at shopping mall kiosks and are made of plastics, which seems to degrade the famous logo that adorns them. Nevertheless, such a watch could be an affordable option for anyone looking for a Ferrari watch to sport during televised Grand Prix or during backyard BBQ parties. What about the $9,995 Girard-Perregaux Ferrari watch? GP was the first high-end watch partner of Ferrari and their connection lasted from 1994 until 2004. GP had a “Pour Ferrari” collection of pretty high-end watches. These pieces look quite dated today, but they offered real high horology with a Ferrari badge. Some watches had only the Prancing Horse. This Ferrari symbol came from the plane of a WWI fighter pilot whose parents gifted it to Enzo Ferrari for his bravery behind the wheel of a race car. Some GP Ferrari models had the triangular Scudetto, which represents the Scuderia Ferrari racing team. We covered the meaning of Il Cavallino Rampante (Prancing Horse). The S.F. stands for Scuderia (team or squad) Ferrari. The stripes at the top are the Italian flag. And the yellow shield is the town shield of Modena, where Ferrari began before moving to Maranello. The GP Ferrari watches featured some awesome complications.