At The US GP With Tudor, We Ask: Why Are Car Guys Obsessed With Watches?
F1 Austin is, indeed, a circus. I’ve been to the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) on many occasions in the past, including a full race weekend for the FIA World Endurance Championship a few years back, but the scene has never been sosceen-y as this.
Adding to the effect is the fact that I’m not here on my own. Under normal circumstances, I’d likely be cheerfully slogging along with the mass of people making their way to the grandstands for a day of practice and qualifying as a bleacher creature. No, I’m at COTA as a guest of Tudor, one of the primary sponsors of the Visa Cash App Red Bull team (VCARB), hosted in VIP suites along pit lane and generally avoiding the hoi polloi.
What’s interesting about the folks I meet – all of them wearing luxury watches and swagged out in F1 gear – is that most of them seem to be genuine “car people,” or at least interested in having car-forward conversations.
At COTA, Everyone Seems To Be Wearing A Tudor
In this crowd, it starts with watches. So many of the VCARB crew, from drivers to the kids leading tours and running the hospitality, are decked out in Tudor models that it makes my head spin a little.
I’m a huge fan of the brand, and the Opline Dial Black Bay GMT is the third Tudor piece I’ve ever owned, but I’m not used to seeing so many other watches from the company in one spot.
Among the VCARB hospitality and PR crew, it’s not surprising to find a slew of the Black Bay Chrono “Carbon 26” that pays homage to this year’s VCARB car. The ultra-lightweight chronograph uses a carbon composite case and a hybrid leather-rubber strap so it feels like absolutely nothing on the wrist (my guy Sam from the team let me try it on). I also spy a fair number of last season’s F1 watch, another carbon-cased Black Bay Chrono but with a bright blue dial instead of this year’s white/yellow affair.
There are also quite a few of the Black Bay 54 dive watches with the “Lagoon Blue” dial – think the color of the bottom of the pool at a Palm Springs mansion in 1965, and you’ll get the idea. I only spot women wearing the Lagoon Blue this time around, and the 37mm stainless steel case might seem on the small side for some guys, but I’d rock one of these in a heartbeat.
in fact, wearing your Tudor seems to be the thing to do in the VCARB suite, as I catch more of the brand’s lineup – a black dial Black Bay Chrono, a Pelagos FXD GMT, etc. – around the box. We’re even treated to a quick chat with Liam Lawson, who gives us a rundown on track conditions while rocking his own Black Bay Ceramic.
Of course, while I’m nerding out being a watch spotter, all anyone wants to talk to me about is cars.
Cars Are The Common Language
Mike, the Carbon 26-wearing owner of a marketing company from New York, grew up lusting over American Muscle cars and the sound of a V8 engine. He told me about his first seriously fast car: a C6 Corvette Z06 he tuned to make serious power and raced in his wild younger days. The Vette met an inglorious end, but a slew of interesting cars followed it up, including his current daily, a Mercedes EQS.
Sam, who was kind enough to let me try on his watch, belongs to probably the most common breed of motor racing enthusiast: Miata Owner. He’s owned a few over the years and currently runs an increasingly quick NB at a track near home, whenever he’s home long enough to get it out of the garage.
I also talked ot Jack and Patty, Austinites who told me they’ve been to every F1 race at COTA since the party kicked off in 2012. Unsurprisingly, Jack has a soft spot for Porsches, and told me that all his 911s are air-cooled but demurred when I asked, “How many 911s are we talking about?” Clearly I need to brush up on my manners when I visit the South.
Perhaps none of this should be that surprising to me. I was at an F1 race, after all. But I didn’t anticipate such a high percentage of the crowd to be really into cars, and obviously really into watches.
Why are so many car people also watch people?
I’m not sure there’s a single answer. No grand, unified theory of people who like to own expensive objects. But after a day spent bouncing from hospitality, to pit lane, to the back of the VCARB garage, some things did start to make sense.
For starters, there’s a little bit of flexing involved. Watches and cars are both highly visible ways of signaling taste, success, and, occasionally, that you’ve got a few more dollars to spend than the guy standing next to you.
There’s also the collector’s impulse. Car people and watch people both seem to enjoy the hunt for something rare, unusual, historically significant, or simply cool enough that you can’t stop thinking about it. Like, before this weekend I never thought about owning a Black Bay Chrono Carbon 26, and now I can’t think of much else…
But I think the deeper connection is mechanical. There’s something satisfying about a machine that does what it’s supposed to do because thousands of tiny decisions in its design and construction all came together correctly. The sound of a solid door shutting; the precise click of a world-class dive bezel.
And maybe that’s why F1 is such a natural meeting place for the two cultures. At COTA, the cars are obviously the stars, but everything around them is an elaborate celebration of machines, precision, performance, design, exclusivity, and the people who are willing to obsess over all of it.
After a day in the VCARB paddock, I came away thinking that the connection between watches and cars isn’t particularly mysterious after all. They’re just two very different ways for people who like machines, and the stories behind them, to indulge the same basic obsession. And, apparently, to spend a lot of money on it.
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