Nighttime Traveler: Porsche Design 1919 Globetimer UTC All Black


Porsche Design broke away from its primary mission of producing motorsports-inspired chronograph watches — while still remaining true to its automotive design DNA — with its 2019 launch of the 1919 Globetimer UTC, a cleverly engineered traveler’s watch offered in a handful of colorways and either a titanium or rose gold case. For the latest iteration of the model, Porsche Design channels the monochromatic black design of its earliest wristwatch, the trendsetting Chronograph I, adding a black carbide coating to the titanium case while maintaining the original model’s user-friendly functionality.

The 1919 Globetimer UTC All Black edition, like its predecessors, boasts a dual-time functionality whose mechanics are derived from the handling of a double-clutch Porsche transmission. With each press of its ergonomic pushers, engineered like those of a chronograph, the central, 12-hour hand moves in one-hour increments to change the local time while the UTC hand (which displays the home time) and the minute hand remain unaffected. The “+” pusher advances the hand clockwise while the “-” button sends it in the opposite direction, and a circular window at 9 o’clock serves as a day-night indicator that helps ensure the local time is set properly for AM or PM: the aperture is white during daylight hours and black at night. The date, indicated by a pointer hand on a 1-31 scale on the dial’s interior, is linked to the local time and automatically shifts backward or forward as necessary.

The watch’s three-part, black titanium carbide-coated case measures 42 mm in diameter and just shy of 15 mm thick, and resists water pressures to 100 meters. The extra-wide dial aperture is designed for an easy reading of two time zones. Under a sapphire crystal with seven layers of nonreflective coating and extra-hard treatment, the black dial features luminous-treated hands, indices, and numerals. In keeping with its automotive heritage, Porsche Design says that it designed the pushers so they could be operated easily even for a wearer behind the wheel of a car, thus there is no need to unscrew the crown or otherwise unlock the pushers to put them to use. As part of Porsche Design’s thorough testing regimen for each watch, each of the pushers must withstand at least 10,000 switching cycles, more than they’re ever likely to encounter during wear.

Inside the case, behind a specially engraved caseback displaying the 24 world time zones, beats an all-new automatic movement, dubbed Porsche Design Werk 04.110. Based on the Sellita SW 200 and incorporating a second-time-zone module developed exclusively for Porsche Design by the specialists at Dubois Dépraz, the caliber has a ball-borne, bidirectional rotor in the “Porsche Design Icon” style, a 4-Hz balance frequency, and a power reserve of 38 hours. The movement, in development since 2014, has both met the rigid specifications for COSC chronometer certification and endured the long-term tests to comply with the Chronofiable SA standard.

Completing the all-black monochromatic look is a black leather strap made of the same high-quality leather found on the interiors of Porsche cars. Available as of August 2021, the Porsche Design 1919 Globetimer UTC All Black is priced at $6,750 and available in Porsche Design stores, select retailers, and at www.porsche-design.com.

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