Classical Evolution

As the official timing partner for the Goodwood Members’ Meeting, IWC Scha hausen took the opportunity to present its newest Ingenieur collection, which returns to its vintage roots while featuring the manufacture’s latest in-house caliber.

- Sean Li

There is a well-established association between motor races and watches, not only out of the necessity of precise timekeeping for such sporting events, but through shared interests; enthusiasts who enjoy motor racing and performance cars quite often are also keen watch collectors. It’s perhaps a fascination for finely tuned mechanical devices that brings these two worlds together, or simply that it appeals to people who have reached a certain status in life that allows them to indulge in these interests, for there is no doubt that it’s a labor of love, even if there is significant investment potential in both fields.

While my own interests lean definitely towards the horological, my interest in performance cars has always followed closely. Many of the weekends in my formative years were spent watching Formula 1 on television, until the time I got my driving license, and started on the very slippery slope of being a sports car enthusiast, culminating in a minor dabble in motor racing a few years ago. I’ve attended racing events, both small and large, and have lamented how the upper echelons of the sport have distanced themselves from the local attendance in favor of television presence. At one of my first F1 races, I had the amazing opportunity to spend it in the pit lane in Montreal, where I was even standing in the pits during the race, leaning against the wall as the drivers were making their pit stops. Today, that pit lane air has become very, very rarefied, and only a select few, outside of the teams themselves, can gain access to the areas immediately surrounding the cars and the drivers. That interest has never left me though, and when the opportunity came to visit Good wood for one of its motoring events, I simply couldn’t miss it.