Swiss watchmaker Zenith salutes Range Rover

October 8, 2016 by Alastair Sloane

Swiss watchmaker Zenith has jumped into bed with Britain’s Land Rover, and the result is the El Primero Range Rover Special Edition chronograph, the first in what both companies say is a long-term partnership.

The El Primero first appeared in the Zenith catalogue in 1969, the year the two-door Range Rover prototype broke cover. El Primero means the ‘the first’ in Esparento, an artifical language conceived in Europe in 1887.

“The match between our two brands is very strong,” said Zenith in a statement. “Zenith and Range Rover are both pioneers in our respective industries, and we both create unique, innovative products.

“Through timeless design, both brands express authentic luxury. The Zenith team is very excited to start this long-term partnership with Range Rover, another superb brand and kindred spirit.”

The El Primero Range Rover special edition chrono can be seen as a tribute to what was the first luxury SUV, with a brushed grey dial bearing the inscription – in fairly subtle type – “Zenith Range Rover”.

The hands and hour-markers are rhodiumed and luminescent. The well-known high-frequency (36,000 vph) El Primero mechanism is a 326-part affair with a 50-hour power reserve. It’s housed in matt black ceramised aluminium bodywork – a nod to the Range Rover chassis – and spans 42 mm.

Water-resistant to 100 metres and topped by a cambered sapphire crystal, the watch has a ratcheted crown and black pushers. A sapphire caseback bearing a “El Primero Range Rover / Special Edition” engraving reveals the mechanics and an oscillating weight again carrying the Zenith and Range Rover logos.

Zenith began business in 1865. It celebrated its 150^th anniversary last year and over the years has produced special-edition watches for historic events. The El Primero Range Rover is priced at US$7700.

If you are in a position to shell out upwards of NZ$600,000 for the 60^thanniversary Porsche 911 S/T or optional Porsche 911 S/T Heritage, you’ll no doubt want the signature titanium watch that goes with it. That’s how Porsche figures it anyway. Or, if you want the watch you’ll need to get the car. Both the car and the watch are limited to 1963 units, the year the original 911 model broke cover. The watch – Chronograph 1 911 S/T and Chronograph 1 911 S/T Heritage – and the car carry matching edition numbers. The watch is priced at $US13,500, or around $NZ22,200. The car, says Porsche NZ, starts at $NZ608,000. A “strictly limited number” will go into production for NZ early next year.

Eight European Union countries are pushing to weaken new EU emissions limits for cars, saying they are overly ambitious and unrealistic for carmakers to hit. The eight countries – France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – said in a joint paper that parts of the proposed Euro 7 regulation, including curbs on exhaust pipe emissions, should be scrapped entirely. They said the limits would force carmakers to invest in improving exhaust emissions performance, money which would be better spent on developing zero-emission vehicles. Taken together, the countries would have enough votes to block the proposal.

A go-anywhere EV concept for the US military uses an onboard 12kW diesel generator to top up the batteries on the move. The all-wheel-drive has 800-volt technology and a 200kWh battery pack to power three electric motors, two in the rear and one up front. Claimed output is 745kW/15,590Nm, or 1000hp and 11,500 ft-lb of torque. The four-seater was developed by the defence division of General Motors and is based on the platform of the Hummer SUV. It rides on Fox performance shock absorbers and 37-inch tyres and comes with “exceptional” approach and departure angles for off-road mobility. Maximum range using the generator to keep things ticking over is said to be around 500km.

The outside temperature in Midland, Texas, was 40.5C when staff at the local office of the US National Weather Service set out to show the cabin of a closed car can literally get baking hot in summer. They mixed up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and laid them on the car’s dashboard – the surface of which showed a temperature of 87.7C. A little over four hours later the cookies were ready to eat. “Even though ours weren’t golden brown, we can confirm that they are done and delicious,” the staff wrote on Facebook.