A BLUE AND WHITE POWERHOUSE
The fruit of a partnership between the watchmaker and the racing car team, the dial on this new watch features the colours of a legendary sports car, the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé.
The design is without doubt the strong point of Baume & Mercier, who have been working on a new timepiece in collaboration with its partner, the Carroll Shelby company, for the past two years. After the Capeland Shelby® Cobra 1963 model, released in 2016 for the SIHH, it’s now the turn of the Clifton collection to welcome the fruit of a partnership between the watchmaker and the motor-racing stable: the Clifton Club Shelby® Cobra CSX2299 chronograph.
This limited edition of 196 pieces revives the aesthetic features of the legendary Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupé, 1st place in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1964 in the GT category, and 4th place in the overall race. What strikes you, first of all, is the dual-coloured dial of the Clifton Club Shelby® Cobra CSX2299, inspired by the “Viking Blue“ paintwork on the racing car, and decorated with two white stripes. Here, blue covers the right-hand side of the watch, while the left-hand side has a white gloss. In the centre, two white dauphine-style rhodium watch hands, coated with Super-LumiNova® blue emission, display the hours and minutes, together with a second counter at 9 o’clock and an open date display at 4.30. As for the chronograph function with a flyback movement, the seconds are shown in the centre with a red second hand featuring the Cobra logo, while the minutes are displayed in a counter with a red hand (at 3 o’clock).
The various displays are powered by a self-winding mechanism, the La Joux-Perret 8147-2 calibre. This is housed in a titanium and steel case with a diameter of 44mm.
Price: 7 650 CHF
By Sharmila Bertin