Horological Meandering

This brand, which was founded in 2018, was apparently making watches with an extremely unique tie to the automotive industry.  Specifically, Lorige makes watch cases and dials from the actual carbon/carbon brake pads from endurance race cars.  What's more, the brake pads they use commonly come from cars that have used them in actual races, and in some cases those cars were race winners.

With my interest piqued, I made a point to check up on the brand here and there.  A U.S. Distributorship was announced last summer, and I signed up to an email list for updates.  Through an interesting course of events, I was invited to be a guest of the brand at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January this year.  Mind you I had not purchased anything, I merely expressed an interest and the brand reached out to invite me.  I was quite pleased to make my own travel arrangements, and Lorige took it from there.

The event was incredible.  I had not previously attended any kind of real automotive race (OK, I have been in a few, but these are non-sanctioned, random events that just seem to happen from time to time ;-)  ), and it was quite exhilarating.  I was able to handle a few protypes and production watches.  I interacted directly with the brand founder and his staff, and the U.S. Distributor.  The product was so utterly impressive, exciting, unique, and authentic, I confirmed an order for a yet-to-be-released watch called the Gris Circuit.  Today, the very first piece from the limited edition was delivered to Colorado.

There is so much more information to detail about this incredible brand, and I will get to that.  For now, let me just say that the 50 pieces for the Gris Circuit were announced to be coming from brake pads run on Ferrari 550 GTS and Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 cars.  Sometime after my order was submitted, I was contacted directly by the company founder, Clément Etienvre.  He asked me if it would be OK if he selected a special brake pad for my specific watch.  During the course of our conversations at Daytona, he learned I was a Cadillac fan and own the Blackwing.  It was just part of the conversation, nothing we dwelled on, but something he and his wonderful colleague Louise must have noted.

I could not be more pleased to share my watch, #02/50, which has been fabricated from the 2019 12 Hours of Sebring race winning Cadillac #31 car.  I am so blown away by the gesture, which also included a personalized video sent from one of the three Cadillac Team drivers, Pipo Derani, who informed me a week ago my watch was on the way, and it was the first in the world.

I look forward to sharing much more on this magnificent timepiece (which, in addition to its unmatched authenticity, features a 7 day, double barrel, manual winding movement) in the coming months.  For now, please enjoy some photos of my new Lorige Cadillac

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