he relationship between watches and motor racing began with a practical requirement: somebody had to measure the performance. Before electronic timing, the chronograph was an essential tool for comparing laps, calculating average speeds and recording the gaps between competitors. Precision had an immediate purpose, and the instrument on the wrist belonged to the same working environment as the instruments on the dashboard.

That necessity has largely disappeared. The attraction has endured. Across French watchmaking, the automobile remains a source of shapes, colours, technical ideas and emotional associations. Lorige, Arpiem, Depancel, Kelton, Yema, Reservoir and B.R.M Chronographes illustrate the breadth of this territory, from accessible nostalgia to ambitious mechanical experimentation.

Their watches also raise an interesting question: once a timepiece is no longer needed to time a race, what makes its connection to motorsport convincing? The answers range from historical continuity and functional design to materials that have actually experienced the track.

France provides fertile ground for this dialogue. The watchmaking and micromechanical skills concentrated around Besançon and the Jura share concerns with automotive engineering: tolerances, friction, energy, resistance and reliability. Meanwhile, names such as Delage, Delahaye, Bugatti and Facel Vega offer a reservoir of design references with a distinctly French accent.

The 1960s and 1970s remain particularly influential. Rallying, endurance racing and charismatic drivers brought a powerful visual language into popular culture. Contrasting chronograph counters, tachymeter scales, perforated straps and assertive case shapes became enduring watchmaking signatures. Today’s brands revisit these codes with very different intentions.

Lorige turns racing brake material into watch cases

Lorige takes the most literal route between car and watch. Founded in 2018 by two motorsport enthusiasts, it developed a patented process for turning carbon brake material into watch cases. Here, the automotive connection extends beyond a logo or dial colour: a component subjected to racing conditions becomes the substance of the timepiece.

The approach gives provenance a physical form. Each case carries an association with a car and its competitive history, making the material itself part of the appeal. Lorige’s collaboration with Aston Martin’s Heart of Racing team and driver Marco Sørensen places this concept within contemporary endurance racing, rather than the familiar imagery of its golden age.

Its BL-Evolution collection combines that approach with a manually wound LOR-DB calibre developed exclusively by Chronode. Two barrels provide a seven-day power reserve, while finishing includes Côtes de Genève, hand chamfering and satin brushing. The contrast between repurposed racing material and carefully finished watchmaking is central to Lorige’s proposition.

Arpiem puts the dial in the driving position

Arpiem approaches the driver’s watch through ergonomics. Its designs draw on vintage pressure gauges, dashboard graphics and bodywork colours, but the Ride & Drive collection adds a practical twist to those references: the dial can change orientation.

In its standard REST position, the display reads conventionally. In DRIVE mode, it rotates towards two o’clock, allowing the wearer to consult the time with a hand on the steering wheel. The idea revisits a longstanding concern of driving watches: adapting the display to the position of the wrist.

The collection’s identities come from rallying. Fesh Fesh evokes the Dakar and Cyril Neveu; Macchia references the Tour de Corse; Time Control draws on the stages of the World Rally Championship. These associations give the watches a setting, while the rotating display supplies a functional reason for the automotive theme.

Depancel revives the dashboard chronograph

For Depancel, the connection begins with its name, assembled from Delage, Panhard and Facel Vega. Founded in 2018 and based in Besançon, the brand brings French automotive memory into a contemporary watchmaking project, with watches designed and assembled by hand in its workshop.

The Autosport Racing Chronograph adopts the visual vocabulary of the 1960s and 1970s. Its appeal rests on the clarity of the chronograph as an instrument, with the dial and aluminium bezel suggesting the purposeful organisation of a dashboard.

A tachymeter scale preserves the original relationship between elapsed time and speed. Used with the chronograph over a known distance, it allows average speed to be read directly. It is a familiar function, but one that gives substance to the design: the racing reference remains something the wearer can operate.

Kelton brings back the colour and character of the Seventies

Kelton brings a different cultural register. Its motorsport associations reach back to the 1970s, through the relationship between its then parent company, Timex, and Emerson Fittipaldi. Watches bearing the Brazilian champion’s signature helped establish a sporting identity built around bright colours, substantial cases and chequered graphics.

The RC collection returns to this period with an emphasis on recognisable silhouettes. The RC 2 channels the muscular forms of vintage cars, while the RC 24 reworks the historic case language with a steel bracelet combining polished and satin finishes. Quartz, meca-quartz and automatic options extend the theme across different approaches to ownership. Kelton’s strongest asset here is familiarity: the racing watch as an object embedded in everyday memory.

Yema takes its Rallygraf heritage back to the track

Yema’s position is anchored in the Rallygraf. Associated with motorsport since the 1960s, the collection offers a direct link to the era that so many newer brands reinterpret. Mario Andretti is among the drivers whose association with these watches has contributed to that history.

The partnership with the Alpine Elf Cup Series gives this heritage a contemporary context. Rallygraf Alpine editions combine an internal tachymeter scale with a perforated rally-style strap, while blue dials draw on one of French motorsport’s most recognisable colours. The interest lies in continuity: an established chronograph identity finding a place alongside present-day competition.

Reservoir reimagines time through the dashboard

Reservoir changes the reading experience itself. Its Kanister collection takes inspiration from the instruments of the Porsche 356 Speedster, translating dashboard design into a watch with a broad sweep of minute indications and an hour window at six o’clock.

On the black dial, a white hand travels across pastel green markings and a red zone. A power-reserve indication reinforces the impression of a miniature instrument panel. The polished grade 5 titanium case and leather strap complete a design whose appeal depends on more than nostalgic graphics: the arrangement of information changes how the wearer encounters time. Awarded a Red Dot Design Award in 2022, Kanister shows how automotive references can support a distinctive display architecture.

B.R.M Chronographes brings racing engineering to the wrist

B.R.M Chronographes, founded by Bernard Richards in 2003, favours an overtly mechanical language. Its V12 collection established signatures including a piston-shaped case and prominent pushers. Cases, hands and dials borrow from engine components, wheels and racing instruments, making the source of inspiration immediately legible.

Materials including titanium, carbon, steel and Makrolon extend this vocabulary. The brand’s Shock Absorber system draws inspiration from automotive suspension, addressing shocks and vibrations within the watch. Hand assembly in France and extensive customisation give the proposition a workshop character, while relationships with drivers, teams and championships keep it connected to the paddock.

Taken together, these seven brands resist any single definition of the French automotive watch. Their common ground is a willingness to treat the car as more than a decorative reference. A rotating dial, a tachymeter, a distinctive display or a case with racing provenance can each establish a different relationship between object and owner.

This diversity also reveals how much latitude smaller brands retain. Without a single shared aesthetic to defend, they can choose which aspect of motoring deserves attention: the driver’s gesture, the instrument panel, the engineering beneath the bodywork or the memory of a race.

The challenge is to make that relationship specific. Vintage colours and racing stripes are widely available; a coherent watchmaking idea is harder to develop. The most persuasive projects turn automotive inspiration into a decision about construction, use or identity. Long after the stopwatch ceased to decide the race, the dialogue between these two mechanical cultures still has room to move forward.

About Francéclat

Francéclat is the French Economic Development Committee for watchmaking, jewellery and tableware. As part of its public-service mission, it brings together more than 15,000 companies across the value chain and supports their development in France and internationally. Its work includes industry data and analysis, support for creativity, and collective initiatives that encourage collaboration and strengthen these sectors.