Porsche Design Chronograph 1 All Black Numbered Edition

I have always found Porsche Design to be one of the most interesting brands in the neo-vintage era of watchmaking. The brand has been responsible for producing numerous iconic pieces that have aged extremely well over the years. Along with great design, Porsche Design has constantly pushed the boundaries of materials used for watchmaking including being the first to PVD coat a watch and releasing the first commercially produced titanium watch. In the past decade, Porsche Design has also made a tremendous push to become a fully integrated watch manufacture and no longer needs to rely on other movement and case manufactures to produce their timepieces.

Porsche Design was founded in 1972 by Professor Ferdinand Alexander Porsche of the famous automotive family of the same last name. F.A. Porsche was best known for being the designer of the industry icon, the Porsche 911. In the early 1970s, the Porsche family made the decision to remove all family members from management positions inside of Porsche. F.A. Porsche who lived for design now needed a new outlet for his creative energy outside of the automotive space and decided a lifestyle brand that still appealed to Porsche enthusiasts would be the best use of his immense talents.



The first product produced by F.A. Porsche and Porsche Design ended up being a watch. Together with the help of Swiss watchmaker Orfina, the Chronograph 1 was developed. The Chronograph 1 was a huge step away from the polished and ornate watches popular at the time. The watch was created to resemble the dashboard instruments found inside of the 911 sports car. The Chronograph 1 was notable for being the first all black commercially produced watch. The deep black color of the Chronograph 1 was achieved by black PVD (physical vapor deposition) coating the stainless steel of the case and bracelet. The main goal of the Chronograph 1 was to reduce glare and improve legibility. The design focusing on minimalism and utility became a hallmark for Porsche Design watches moving forward.

After the success of the Chronograph 1, Porsche Design set their sights even higher for their next set of releases. For the next watches, Porsche Design was keen to craft their watches out of titanium. Sadly Ofrina, while a great watchmaker did not have the capabilities to work with such a demanding material as titanium. Titanium was notoriously hard to work with and the dust it created was highly flammable causing many fires during fabrication.

Porsche Design was able to find a perfect match with the technical knowledge to work with titanium in fellow German speaking Swiss watch manufacture IWC. IWC had long been known to focus heavily on engineering and was willing to put the resources into the creation of the desired Porsche Design watches. 1980 saw the fruit of their labor achieved with the launch of the fully titanium Titan Chronograph. While other brands had produced prototype watches made out of titanium, the Titan Chronograph was the first commercially produced titanium watch.



Another landmark release from the partnership with IWC was the Compass Watch which was housed in an aluminum case that featured both a compass and mechanical movement. The genius of the design was that neither the compass nor the movement were allowed to negatively affect each other's accuracy. The Compass Watch showed just how far the two brands could go to produce a watch that was both extremely practical and ground breaking.

My personal favorite from the partnership was the creation of the Ocean 2000 series of civilian and military dive watches. I recently acquired one of the civilian Ocean 2000s and did a detailed review of the watch. The Ocean 2000 used the creative genius of F.A. Porsche to create a truly organic case that seamlessly flowed into the bracelet and the engineering might of IWC allowed the watch to be water resistant to a record smashing 2,000 meters. Even decades later, the Ocean 2000 still looks like it could be a currently in production watch.

1998 saw the end of the mutually beneficial partnership between Porsche Design and IWC. Porsche Design then started a new chapter in their watchmaking journey by partnering with Swiss watchmaker Eterna for their next round of timepieces. The Eterna time period focused on the production of timepieces that honored previously released pieces and refining their design language. Included in these watches were the P'6510 Black Chronograph (which honored the Chronograph 1), the P'6520 Compass Watch (which was a reinterpretation of the original Compass Watch) and the P'6530 Titan Chronograph (which was a tribute to the original titanium chronograph).



The next critical step in Porsche Design's history came in 2014 with the formation of Porsche Design Timepieces AG in Switzerland. The goal here was to now take Porsche Design watches from being created by partner watchmakers to being produced fully in-house. This meant that Porsche Design would manufacture everything from the cases and bracelets to completed movements. This resulted in Porsche Design creating their first in-house movement in the WERK 01.200 which was a chronometer certified flyback chronograph. Porsche Design also continued to evolve their technical expertise of case materials under this newly formed company. Today Porsche Design is now fully owned by parent company Porsche AG and continues to produce amazing high tech timepieces which pay respect to their storied past.

Initial Thoughts

For the first piece Porsche Design sent us to review they picked the recently released Chronograph 1 All Black Numbered Edition. This watch is a direct tribute to the original Chronograph 1 which was the first all black watch. Instead of using PVD coated stainless steel, Porsche Design now uses black titanium carbide coated titanium to achieve the matte black look.



When the Chronograph 1 All Black arrived the first thing that caught my eye was the stunning chronograph seconds hand. The watch has an all black and white aesthetic to it, so this scorching pinkish red hand just stands out. I've always been a fan of neon colors such as pink, green and yellow, so seeing such a vibrant bright color used on a serious all black watch is amazing. I recently remarked to a group I run of industry professionals and collectors of how much I was taken aback by this little piece of design. I'm actually a bit shocked that other brands aren't using such vibrant colors on their dials.

The next thing I noticed about the Chronograph 1 All Black during my initial time with the watch was just how lightweight the watch was. My personal collection of watches is pretty much solely made up of titanium, ceramic and carbon pieces so I'm used to lightweight watches. All of my watches either came with straps or have been moved over to straps, so it's strange to me to pick up a watch on a full metal bracelet and still have it feel lightweight. When sized to my 7.25 inch wrist, the Chronograph 1 All Black only weighed a respectable 125 grams while on the titanium bracelet.

The last thing I took note of from my first bit of time with the Chronograph 1 All Black was the stunning in-house WERK 01.140 movement. Looking through the sapphire crystal equipped display back you can see how much depth the caliber has. The WERK 01.140 is topped with a brushed black skeletonized winding rotor featuring the Porsche Design logo. Underneath you find the blackened movement base with repeating Porsche Design logos that contrasts nicely with the non-treated gears and chronograph components.



Technical Specifications

Now that we've gone over the history of Porsche Design as well as my initial thoughts of the Chronograph 1 All Black, let's now take a look at the technical specifications of the watch. The Chronograph 1 All Black is crafted out of titanium that has a black titanium carbide coating that gives it the signature black look. The case diameter is 40.8 mm and the lug to lug length is 44.6 mm. On our scale the watch weighed in at 125 grams and at its thickest point is 15.2 mm tall.

The Chronograph 1 All Black uses a flat sapphire crystal that has seven layers of anti-reflective coating applied to it. Under the crystal clear sapphire is the matte black dial. Around the outside of the dial is a white printed minute track. The hour markers are made up of large blocks that are coated with Super-Luminova that glows green in low lighting. At 3 o'clock resides the Porsche Design logo sitting atop black backed date and day of the week windows. The day of the week can also be changed between English and German. Beneath these windows is the Porsche Design text along with "Chronometer Certified". "Swiss Made" can also be found at 6 o'clock in reference to the now Swiss based Porsche Design manufacture.



There are three centrally mounted hands on the Porsche Design Chronograph 1 All Black being the hour, minutes and chronograph seconds hand. The hour and minute hands are rather slim with the hour hand being bar style and the minute hand being fence post style. Both of these hands are coated with matching Super-Luminova to the hour markers. The chronograph minute hand is done in that near neon pinkish red hue that I raved about earlier.

The Chronograph 1 All Black features three sub-dials as well. All three sub-dials are somewhat recessed and feature white printing and slender white hands. At 12 o'clock you have the chronograph minute totalizer, at 6 o'clock you have the chronograph hour totalizer and at 9 o'clock is the running seconds hand for the watch. The very exterior of the dial also features a white printed tachymeter scale starting with 500 units per hour.



Looking at the case of the Porsche Design Chronograph 1 All Black you tell that the watch is designed to be a true tool watch. The finishing of the watch is all done to a matte finish without a polished surface in sight. The profile of the Chronograph 1 shows a slight curve that follows your wrist as well. The right hand side of the watch features two pushers and a screw down crown topped by a Porsche Design logo. The screw down crown is nicely scalloped and aids with the 100 meters of water reserve and feels like a professional instrument when being un-screwed. There is a lot of tension to the crown which is extremely reassuring. Once un-screwed the automatic movement can be would in its resting position. Pulling the crown out to position one allows you to set the date and day of the week. Rotating the crown towards you changes the day of the week and turning it away from you sets the date. Pulling the crown all the way out lets you set the time and stops the running seconds hand. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minutes hand it doesn't take much care to get the crown to catch to be screwed back in. There is again a decent amount of pressure needed to screw the crown back in.

The top pusher found at 2 o'clock is used to start and stop the chronograph. Once stopped the lower pusher at 4 o'clock will reset all of the chronograph hands back to zero. The chronograph pushers work with a rewarding click for starting, stopping and restarting the chronograph. The display back also allows you to see the various chronograph components move when performing the chronograph functions as well.



Flipping the watch over shows off the screw down case back with its sapphire display window. All the important information about the watch is engraved on the bezel of the display back. The individual number of the watch is also engraved here. Beneath the sapphire crystal you can see the in-house Swiss made WERK 01.140 automatic movement with COSC certification. The watch beats away at 28,800 vph (4Hz) and has a power reserve of 48 hours. On our timegrapher the WERK 01.140 showed an accuracy of +3 seconds per day when averaged out over several positions.

As we mentioned earlier the movement is nicely finished starting with a blackened winding rotor that has a brushed finished and is skeletonized. The rotor also features the Porsche Design logo worked into the rotor design. Below the rotor you have a black base with repeating Porsche Design logos. This black base contrasts nicely to the un-treated colors of the gears and chronograph components.

The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 All Black appears to have an integrated bracelet design, but the watch actually features hidden lugs. The lug width is 22 mm and the case should be able to accept most 22 mm wide straps. Porsche Design does use strap adapter end links for the models of the Chronograph 1 on strap, so that might be needed to add aftermarket straps. The titanium bracelet tapers from 28.5 mm at the lugs down to 18 mm at the Porsche Design branded deployant clasp. Two buttons are required to be pushed in to release the folding clasp. The clasp also features a series of set micro-adjustments that allow around 10 mm of adjustments. Links are added and removed by screws, which is our preferred method of securing link pins.



On The Wrist

Going into the Porsche Design Chronograph 1 All Black I was a bit concerned. First and foremost I absolutely hate bracelets on watches. This stems from many Texas summers wearing bracelets with no adjustments that would either be too tight outdoors or too loose inside. Secondly I tend to stay above 50 mm of lug to lug length with my personal watches, the 44.6 mm lug to lug of the Chronograph 1 All Black is much shorter than I prefer.

With these two deal breakers at the forefront of my mind I was shocked with how much I enjoyed wearing the Chronograph 1 All Black. The bracelet of the watch is just excellent and it's actually a bracelet I could see myself wearing and not instantly swapping the watch over to a strap. The micro-adjustments do a lot to help with my opinion of the bracelet, but honestly the lightweight titanium construction does the most. Most watches suffer a massive weight penalty when sticking with a metal bracelet, but the added heft from the bracelet is minimal here. Also with it still being summer here in Austin, I found myself using the easy to use micro-adjustments often.



I'm not sure if it's the matte black hue of the watch or the integrated look that made the Chronograph 1 All Black appear to wear larger than it actually is. Never once did I look down at my wrist and wish the watch was 3 or 4 mm bigger. It's a testament to the design when somebody who is used to much larger watches is comfortable with a watch that can easily be worn by somebody with much smaller wrists than my 7.25 inch wrist. The watch also stayed well centered on my wrist and never favored one side over the other which is something I can't stand on watches that don't fully cover my wrist.

I wore the Porsche Design Chronograph 1 All Black as often as possible during my time with the watch including boring everyday errands and out to dinner and drinks. At just 125 grams the Chronograph 1 All Black was a treat on wrist. During even extended wear times the watch pretty much disappeared and never became a hassle or caused any wrist fatigue. The watch was there when I needed it and otherwise was an afterthought. The Chronograph 1 All Black turned out to be a great wrist companion.



I use a very simple method for testing the legibility of a watch which is seeing how easy it is to tell the time while driving at just a glance. In my testing dive watches with large markers and hands do the best while skeleton watches do the worse. Chronographs for the most part fall somewhere in the middle since their dials display a lot more data at the sacrifice of some legibility. The Chronograph 1 All Black did slightly better at my legibility test than expected mainly due to the tremendous contrast between the matte black dial and the bright white hands and markers. The sub-dials do take some of the legibility away, but overall quick time telling is a breeze. There are just enough lumed elements on the dial to make low light time telling more than acceptable as well.

The all black look of the Chronograph 1 All Black did go pretty much perfectly with my typical dress of a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers… almost as if the watch was designed for my aesthetic. When wearing the Chronograph 1 All Black out I noticed a surprising amount of people looking at the watch and even had a few ask and comment about it. This was surprising since the Chronograph 1 was originally designed to be more of a stealthy under the radar timepiece even made to reduce reflections. Everyone I showed the watch to remarked on the look of the blackened titanium as well as the lightness of the watch. People were somewhat split on what they thought about the price of the Chronograph 1 All Black though.



Value and Position in the Market

Speaking of price, the Porsche Design Chronograph 1 All Black Numbered Edition retails for $9,650. For that price you are getting a tribute to one of the most important chronograph watches of all time in a modernized package. The watch is fully crafted from titanium including the case and bracelet and features a scratch resistant blackened titanium carbide coating. The new Chronograph 1 also runs an in-house chronograph movement manufactured in Switzerland by Porsche Design. Now would be the time to take at other watches that offer similar specifications and features to the Chronograph 1 All Black and see how the watch fairs value wise.

First up we have the Speedmaster Dark Side of the Moon from Omega which has a 44.25 mm case crafted out of black ceramic. The Dark Side of the Moon runs on an in-house hand wound movement with 50 hours of power reserve. The Dark Side of the Moon only has 50 meters of water resistance compared to the 100 meters of the Chronograph 1. The Dark Side of the Moon is also much more expensive than the Chronograph 1 at $15,000.



Next up we have the Pilot's Watch Chronograph 41 Top Gun Ceratanium from IWC which has a 41 mm case crafted out of IWC's special titanium based alloy Ceratanium. The watch is powered by an in-house automatic movement with 46 hours of power reserve. The IWC has matching water resistance to the Porsche Design at 100 meters. Like the Omega, the IWC is much more expensive than the Porsche Design at $13,100.

Moving on is the Chronomaster Revival Shadow from Zenith which has a 37 mm case crafted out of titanium. The Revival Shadow has a vintage inspired look to it and runs off of an in-house automatic movement with 50 hours of power reserve. The Revival Shadow has half of the water resistance of the Chronograph 1 at 50 meters as well. The Chronomaster is a bit less expensive than the Chronograph 1 at $9,600 but does not include a titanium bracelet.

Finally we have the Big Bang UNICO Titanium Ceramic from Hublot which has a 44 mm case crafted out of titanium. The Big Bang runs off of an in-house automatic movement with 72 hours of power reserve and a flyblack chronograph. The Big Bang has a matching 100 meters of water reserve as well. The Big Bang is much more expensive than the Chronograph 1 All Black at $22,900.



By looking at the above four watches you can see that the Porsche Design Chronograph 1 All Black is actually a great value for a Swiss made chronograph featuring an in-house movement. Except for the Zenith, which doesn't feature a full titanium bracelet, the other watches are much more expensive than the Porsche Design. The features and specifications of all five watches are rather similar as well and besides price, the choice between them comes down to personal preference.

Closing Thoughts

So in the end is the Porsche Design Chronograph 1 All Black for me? In all honesty I really enjoyed my time with the watch and could see one in my personal collection. One thing I forgot to mention when I said that the lug to lug width of well under 50 mm and the watch being on a bracelet were negatives to me before spending time with the Chronograph 1 All Black was that I'm really not a fan of chronographs. My favorite watch of all time, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Juan Pablo Montoya, is a chronograph and I never use the complication but still love the watch. Even though I don't use chronographs I get why they are featured on motorsports inspired watches like the Chronograph 1 and the Montoya.



I do also own a few all black watches in my personal collection so the Chronograph 1 All Black would fit in just fine. The matte black case, dial and bracelet just make the white hands and markers pop so nicely as well, even more so with the stunning bright chronograph seconds hand. I was also pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed wearing the watch on the bracelet which is something I do not often say. For being a newer movement manufacture the WERK series caliber inside of the Chronograph 1 All Black was extremely accurate and offered very nice winding, setting and chronograph tactile feeling. Even the smaller lug to lug length of the case didn't bother me when on wrist and fit very well. Finally I've always respected the original Chronograph 1 and having this be a very faithful modern interpretation of that watch is a huge bonus to me.

So would I then recommend the Chronograph 1 All Black to somebody looking for a robust luxury chronograph? I feel that Speedmasters, Pilot's Chronographs and Rolex Daytona's are a dime a dozen. Sure they are all great watches and well worth their prices, but they are just too common. The Chronograph 1 offers all the benefits of those watches as well as a great heritage for the same or less money. The watch just looks like nothing else on the wrist as well. I'd really give my full recommendation to the Porsche Design Chronograph 1 All Black to somebody looking for a higher end chronograph. At the least the watch deserves to be seen in person and tried on. I feel once you get the Chronograph 1 All Black on wrist you might have a hard time taking it off.



I'd really like to thank Porsche Design for sending us this Chronograph 1 All Black to review. Having just reviewed my own personal Porsche Design by IWC Ocean 2000 recently it's nice to have a modern watch from the brand to compare. While the new Chronograph 1 All Black has such modern touches as Super-Luminova and a robust in-house movement, the soul of F.A. Porsche is still very present in the design. In the end I really enjoyed my time with the Chronograph 1 All Black and will miss it when I goes back to Porsche Design next week.

For more information about the Chronograph 1 All Black please visit : Porsche Design

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: WAP0710090PBLK

Retail Price: $9,650

Case Size: 40.8 mm

Lug to Lug: 44.6 mm

Thickness: 15.2 mm

Weight: 125 grams

Case Material: Titanium with a Black Titanium Carbide Coating

Bezel: Titanium with a Black Titanium Carbide Coating

Strap: Titanium with a Black Titanium Carbide Coated Bracelet. Deployant Clasp with Micro-Adjustments

Movement: Swiss Made In-House WERK 01.140 Automatic Movement

Functions: Chronograph, Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Day and Date

Power Reserve: 48 Hours

Water Resistance: 100 Meters