Even those of us not lucky enough to be able to afford a new Porsche have probably wiled away a few minutes on the Porsche configurator dreaming up the perfect combination of colour, trim and options for that fantasy Boxster, 911 or Cayenne.
And now Porsche Design, the sports car company’s sister organisation, has given prospective buyers of its pricey chronographs the same kind of opportunity to get personal.
The configurator features two watches, the first of which is a chronograph priced at £5140 (interestingly, it’s only $5150, the equivalent of £3675, on the US website).
Standard, the case and clasp comes finished in natural titanium, but for £300 you can upgrade that to black titanium. You get the same options for the rotating bezel, and there are 29 different colour options for the inner ring, ranging from black to bright yellow. And if you go for the leather strap over one of the £620-950 metal bracelet options, you’re given another big palette from which to personalise the colour of the strap and stitching.
And finally, before you’ve selected some text for the engraving option. you can choose one of nine real Porsche road wheel designs for the winding rotor. This is on the back of the watch, so can’t be seen when it’s being worn. But you’ll definitely want to whip the watch off to show anyone who takes an interest, and probably a few who don't.
The second watch available to personalise through the configurator is the Porsche Design chronograph 911 GT3. That GT3 badge doesn’t mean the second hand races around the dial any faster, but it does bring a big increase in price. This one costs £8400 before you’ve ticked a single customisation box. Those customisation options are mostly carried over from the first watch, but here you can only select the GT3-style road wheel design for the winding rotor.
Really go to town, and it’s possible to end up with a timepiece that costs you as much as a nice used Boxster. But even if the idea of dropping £10k on watch sounds ridiculous, it’s fun to pretend.
Keyword: Porsche’s online watch configurator lets you design your perfect chronograph