A Week With The Wickedly Cool Porsche 911 Dakar And a Porsche Design Watch to Match

Have we lost the plot? Are we abandoning watches? No, of course not, but this time around the Petrolhead Corner is serving up something very special. Yet with us, watches are never far away as we will be going over the connection between Porsche, the car manufacturer and Porsche Design. How? By looking at two benchmark products as examples; the mad Porsche 911 Dakar, and a matching special edition of the Porsche Design Chronograph 1. We put the car through its paces both on and off-road, and it was mad fun! Oh, and the watch too of course, as that’s kind of our thing after all. So sit back, relax and enjoy the show!

Now, before I start rambling on about Porsche, its 911 Dakar, the Porsche Design watches and so on, I want to make one thing very clear. Frank and I do not consider ourselves professional motoring journalists, and it probably shows in the video. We can tell you all about watches, and quite a lot about cars, but we are no Jeremy Clarkson, Henry Catchpole or Matt Watson. This project was done purely out of passion. A passion for watches, cars, and more specifically Porsche and its iconic 911. So don’t expect a detailed review about how the GT3 engine mounts make it feel sharper through corners and whatnot. That’s not our thing. Nevertheless, I hope you’ll do as much as I did!

Porsche and the neunelfer

The 911 is truly an iconic sportscar and a genuine benchmark for the industry. Designed by Ferdinand-Alexander “Butzi” Porsche in the early 1960s as a replacement for the 356, the 911 has been setting performance standards since its introduction. It was shown to the public at the Turin Auto Show in 1963 and went on sale a year later. The concept of the original 911, characterized by its rear-mounted flat-six engine, has been honed to perfection with every generation.

It should also be no surprise that with such a legacy, the 911 has had a very prolific racing career as well. It has won numerous iconic races, sometimes even unexpectedly. In one form or another, it took victory at Le Mans (1979, as the heavily modified 935 K3), the Targa Florio (1973, as the 911 Carrera RSR), the Daytona 24 Hours (multiple times, primarily as the 911 Carrera RSR and 935 series) and the Paris-Dakar. It won the gruelling event twice actually, in 1984 with the 911-derived 953 and two years later with the legendary Porsche 959. This Dakar-winning history is the direct inspiration for the 911 Dakar we have on the road today.

Now, almost 70 years later, Porsche still finds room for improvement and the brand is a master of creating unique and exhilarating performance cars. There’s a 911 for everyone, whether you prefer an open-top cruiser or a genuine race car with a license plate. Power always comes from a flat-six nowadays, but it can be naturally aspirated or turbocharged, depending on the exact model. Porsche once played around with four-cylinder engines for the 911, calling it the 912 instead, but those days are long gone, although the 912 is known for its better balance and handling. Anyway, that’s a story for a different time.

Porsche recently updated its road-going 911 once again, as it presented the new 992.2 generation shortly after we had our fun in the 911 Dakar. As ever, it’s not purely an aesthetic update but one with a technological side too, as the latest innovation to be introduced to the 911 legacy is; electrification! No worries, it’s not a full EV (fortunately) and the new tech only comes on certain models. This mid-cycle update introduces the new T-Hybrid drivetrain, but it’s not about increasing fuel efficiency or giving the car an all-electric range at low speeds. Instead, the system adds an electric motor to the turbocharger to eliminate lag and increase power. The result is 541bhp for the GTS model, about 60 horsepower more than the outgoing model. Furthermore, there’s another electric motor integrated into the automatic PDK double-clutch gearbox, plus active aero slats in the front bumper.

From Porsche comes Porsche design

But how does Porsche Design fit into all of this? Well, for those not ‘in the know’, the Porsche family actually stepped down from the control of the Porsche company in 1972 with the intent to protect it moving into the future. Family struggles have killed more than a few brands over the past, so this sounded like a sensible move. Not resting on its laurels, F.A. Porsche launched Porsche Design that same year and the first product was in fact, a mechanical wristwatch!

This aptly named Chronograph 1 was, true to F.A. Porsche’s vision, another very purposeful creation. It was the first commercially available all-black coated wristwatch and its form very much followed function. Inspiration came from the rev counter in Porsche’s racing cars, which needed to be extremely legible when hurtling down the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans well over 300kph. As such, the Chronograph 1 is fully blacked out with the only colour coming from the white hands and markings, and the red tips of the chronograph hands. It has proven to be a benchmark product for the design studio as the 911 is for the car manufacturer. Even today, although production methods and materials have progressed massively since 1972, the Chronograph 1 remains a core product in the design studio’s portfolio.

But that’s not all, as you can find several more historical car- and watch-inspired elements across the Porsche Design watch collection. Take the Monobloc Actuator for instance, which is inspired by the Titan Chronograph Porsche Design made in the 1980s, in collaboration with IWC. This was another first in the industry, as it introduced us to the first commercially available titanium case and bracelet. It also featured a pair of pushers that were integrated into the profile of the case, which is replicated in the single swivelling pusher to start, stop and reset the chronograph of the modern-day Monobloc Actuator. Despite the fact it’s no longer available it remains a very cool-looking watch!

The 911 Dakar, car and watch

Coming back to the 911, and more specifically the 911 Dakar, there’s a lot to be said about it. First off, it’s not a car for the shy at heart as it grabs attention like a Baboon’s rear-end. Everywhere I went with the car people would come up to me and ask all sorts of questions. In traffic, people will stare and wave, take pictures with their phones, pull up alongside you, want you to blip the throttle or just hammer it, and whatnot. Rest assured, it never resulted in stupidity or incidents. The simple fact of the matter is, that a regular 911 can be considered quite common, to be honest, but the 911 Dakar sits on the complete opposite end of the spectrumm especially if you opt for the roof kit!

However, the important question is this; how does it drive? I can answer that with one simple word; brilliant! Yes, it takes a bit of effort to get in and out of as it comes with carbon fibre bucket seats and a bit of scaffolding in the back, but it’s a genuine Jekyll & Hyde kind of car. It’s both very docile in traffic when at normal speeds, but a hooligan when you open all the taps. Put it in normal mode and it’s a very easy car to control, but put it in sports mode and it becomes sharp as a knife.

Underneath the beefed-up exterior and raised suspension it’s a 911 GTS, so its 3.0-litre flat-six puts out 480bhp thanks to a pair of turbos. This gives it a zero-to-100kph time of 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 240kph. That might sound a tad low, but it’s limited mainly due to the stubby off-road Pirelli Scorpion tyres. And in all honesty, it’s more about how it gets there with this one. It’s still properly fast and never lost its footing when being thrown around a corner, but it gets all sorts of sideways when you take it off-road.

All this results in a 911 unlike any other, and it handles urban challenges admirably, but it’s off the beaten path where it really shines. Show it some dirt, sand or mud, and the fun factor goes through the roof! Launch control, on a middy surface? No problem! Turning a hard corner in the sand? No problem! Puddles and potholes that would see a normal 911 get beached or broken? No problem! Jumps, even? I haven’t tried but I’m pretty certain what the answer will be: No problem! All this thanks to permanent all-wheel drive, off-road tyres, a lift kit and other mechanical trickery. And if you do end up getting stuck, which is quite a challenge I tell you, I do hope you’ve opted for the roof rack with shovel and driving plates.

If you are the very lucky owner of one of the 2,500 cars Porsche made, perhaps you also have the watch to match. Similar to pretty much every other special 911 version, Porsche Design offers the owners of the car a watch to go along with it. You’re not obliged to buy it, but it’s nice to know you can have fun with both.

The watch we had on loan had a perforated leather strap which is always made from the same material as the car’s interior upholstery. The stitching and backing of the perforated section are finished in Sage Green, matching the paint job of our loaner car. The case is now in titanium carbide, which is even more resilient than regular titanium alloys. Or ceramic for that matter, as it’s less brittle and thus less likely to break when you accidentally drop it or hit a door frame.

All in all, it’s a perfect example of how the worlds of cars and watches can cross paths and intertwine. It’s no real surprise Porsche the car manufacturer and the Porsche Design studio are still working together so closely after all those years. The 911 on one end, and the Chronograph 1 on the other, are key products for both companies whichever way you look at it.

For more information, please visit Porsche.com or Porsche-Design.com.

Editorial Note: The watches and the car have been provided by Porsche Design in Germany and Porsche Pon Imports in the Netherlands. Other sources of information or images are credited where needed.