Porsche Design Reveals the Chronograph 1 911 Dakar in Titanium Carbide

There’s nothing better than waking up to some insanely cool watch, and car news. If you haven’t heard by now, Porsche revealed a wildly aggressive 911 spec’d out for one of the toughest off-road races in the world. The new model is dubbed the Porsche 911 Dakar and it’s not your average Porsche 911 – it’s lifted, fitted with a roof rack, all-terrain tires and two new driving modes (Off-road & Rallye). I could keep going (stay tuned this weekend’s WSG), but this is a watch publication after all. In addition to the Porsche 911 Dakar, Porsche Design debuted the Chronograph 1 911 Dakar and the 911 Dakar Rallye Design. Like the new 911, this is not your average Porsche Design Chronograph. For the first time, PD is releasing the world’s first chronograph that is fully comprised of Titanium Carbide.

Titanium Carbide, or TiC for short, is a unique blend of durable materials in Carbon, and of course Titanium. The compound is characterized by its extreme hardness, is lighter than standard titanium, and is virtually scratch resistant. All properties that you would want in a watch, and every other piece of gear, including your car, if you were a participant in a rally that spans 8,000 kilometers across the unforgiving Saudi Arabian desert. The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 911 Dakar TiC case also features the powdery matte gray finish that naturally occurs when the compound is created. As far as its form and silhouette, the case extends itself vertically from the fixed bezel, and ends with a slight curve at the top and bottom. The case has no lugs, and uses a system that has the visual appearance of the rally designed strap integrating with the case.

Every millimeter of space is accounted for on the dial. The subdials take up their positions at six, nine, and twelve. At the three o’clock area, the “911 Dakar” wordmarking stacks on top of the day and date window bar, which then stacks on top of “Porsche Design” and the chronometer certified print. Tucked in between one and two o’clock is a bold red “TiC” logo that harkens back to Porsche Design’s vintage military watches that used the “3H” logo to signify the use of tritium lume.

The buying process for both models is a nice touch to the whole release. A link on their website takes you toa  Porsche Design Chronograph 1 911 Dakar configurator, similar to an interface you would use when customizing your dream vehicle. Now there aren’t as many options to spec out your own PD Chronograph 1 with a TiC case, but it’s still a thoughtful way to present the watch.

Through the configurator, you have the option of choosing between the 911 Dakar dial, which sports all black subdials, or the 911 Dakar Rallye Design dial which uses the rally stripe color combination found on the Porsche 911 Dakar rally car. You also have the option to choose between a black, gray or white winding rotor color visible through the exhibition caseback. Under the hood (opportune time to say that when talking about an auto-watch theme), the PD Chronograph 1 911 Dakar uses the Caliber WERK 01.240 equipped with a chronometer certification and a flyback chronograph. Strap wise, both watches will come on rally design leather strap with PD’s quick changing system.

I’ve been long on the record as not being a “chronograph guy”. But between seeing Zack Kazan’s Ceratanium IWC and Blake Buettner’s Porsche Design 1972 Chronograph LE multiples times in office, I must say it’s hard not to set an alert for one of these references, or something similar, like a vintage 36 mm IWC Porsche Design 3732. As for the Chronograph 1 911 Dakar, I’m hoping this opens up the possibility for a Titanium Carbide chronograph as a regular production model. Maybe a reference without that substitutes the Dakar wordmark for the PD logo? I’m indifferent on the TiC logo, but I think something like this would go over well for the Porsche Design crowd, IWC crowd, and the watch crowd.

The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 911 Dakar is not inexpensive. Both the 911 Dakar and the 911 Dakar Rallye Design retails for $14,500. And if the watch and the price is in your lane, then it’s worth noting that LE is limited to a total of 2,500 pieces and is exclusively for Porsche 911 Dakar and Porsche Rallye Design owners. Porsche Design