Five interesting race inspired watches to celebrate the Singapore Grand Prix

As this article goes live, the Singapore Grand Prix has started. While watching the race live, enjoy our pick of five race inspired watches.

We looked at race inspired watches for F1 several times in the past, from 2018, 2019 and 2021. There was no race in 2020 during the pandemic, and looking back, it seems we missed 2022. But we are back! Here are our pick of five watches inspired by racing during this F1 season. Why 5 instead of 6? Well, its been heck of a week, and why not? Here it goes! Note: No particular order. Links will take you to the original articles as usual.

Five interesting race inspired watches to celebrate the Singapore Grand Prix

Bell & Ross BR 05-92 Chrono A523 (Week on the wrist review next week!)

The Bell & Ross partnership with Alpine continues for the 2023 season with this novelty. The base watch is now the BR 05 Chrono, and is dressed in the blue colour scheme and with the tricolour of the French Flag making its appearance on the dial. This is the exact same watch which we reviewed in the link above, but with a new livery to reflect the continued partnership with Alpine Motorsports. As usual, the aesthetics hit the spot. Reflecting the colours of the F1 car, the elements are picked up, and the linkage between car and watch is clear.

Worn by Estaban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, the new watch is the BR release for the 2023 F1 Season. Earlier releases with Alpine are the Bell & Ross BR 03-94 A521 Alpine F1 Edition in 2021 with our full hands on comprehensive review linked, and the BR 03-92 Black and Alpine Blue A552.

TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Night Driver

Both Max Verstappen  and Sergio Perez was at the global launch event for the TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph Night Driver on Thursday.

Capturing the spirit of Singapore’s night race, the watch has full lume dial. In good lighting, the dial looks rather monochromatic in shades of grey, matching nicely to the dark grey case with its dark grey crown and pushers. The main dial is a darker hue than the sub-dials and dial background.

The rest of the watch is a standard Monaco Chronograph, with the Heuer 02 automatic caliber installed. The case is black DLF over titanium to give it that dark look.

IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Edition “Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team”

IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Edition Mercedes-AMG-Petronas F1 Team is the watch worn by Mercedes-AMG George Russell. The other driver, arguably more famous – Lewis Hamilton is reported to be wearing his IWC Big Pilot.

Russell qualified last night in second place, with Hamilton in fifth position to start the race today. (Post race update: Russell crashed out in Lap 62/62 while Hamilton finished third in the Singapore GP 2023).

The IWC Pilot’s Chronograph 41 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team Watch is a handsome watch. The 41mm case size is a nice fit for most wrists, and the special colour accents in Petronas Green adds character, pizzazz and pop to the watch, and very befitting a top performing Formula 1 Team bearing the same colours.

Girard-Perregaux Laureato Absolute Chronograph Aston Martin F1 Edition

The GP Laureato Absolute Chronograph Aston Martin F1 Edition is based on the innovative Absolute Rock Chronograph Carbon Glass model first released in 2019.  The F1 Edition keeps the same shape and size of the launch model, but instead of a PVD darkened titanium, a special titanium and carbon material is selected. This material is not only unique, it ties back to the F1 racing team as it uses carbon which is extracted from two actual F1 cars used in the 2021 season. The look of the case is also interesting, as it has a unique pattern melange of grey and green. even the strap is a model of attention to detail, as uses a mixture of carbon and rubber from the same two F1 cars.

Aston Martin will be represented by veteran driver, Fernando Alonso who will start the finals in position 7 with the GP on his wrist. The other Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll, had suffered a spectacular crash during the Q2 qualifications, and will not race in the finals even though he qualified to start in position 20.

Richard Mille RM 67-02

And finally, but surely not least, we come to Richard Mille. Sponsoring not only 1, but two F1 teams – McLaren and Ferrari. All 4 drivers are apparently wearing RM 67-02, though in different colourways. But top of the news for the Singapore GP certainly goes to Carlos Sainz for Scuderia Ferrari, who wears the Richard Mille RM 67-02, even though he does not have a special edition RM named after him. He started 90 minutes ago in pole position for the finals. We will know shortly if he will end up winning the Singapore race. (Note added after the night race was completed: Sainz won the Singapore GP 2023). The watch was almost stolen from him in Milano earlier this year.

Charles Leclerc, also racing for Scuderia Ferrari and starting in position 3 for the finals has been with Richard Mille for years. Even when Ferrari was sponsored by Hublot, he is frequently seen to be with his RM watch. For Singapore, he wears his own special edition RM 67-02, a watch that also gained some unwanted attention. In May 2022, Leclerc had his stolen from his wrist while in Italy.

The other Richard Mille team is McLaren, and the team uses the RM 50-03.

Concluding thoughts

There you have our picks. What would you have picked from this year’s crop of watches worn by drivers in the 2023 Formula 1 Season? No doubt, all are sponsored by the watch brands, with the grand daddy Rolex taking them all, sponsoring the entire Formula 1 as Global Partner and the Official Timepiece since the 2013 season.