Bulova and Shelby team up to launch a 50th anniversary chronograph

Two storied brands – Bulova and Shelby – have teamed up to release a new chronograph in honor of the 50^thanniversary of Shelby’s Aluminum Edition Daytona Coupe. As Breitling has shown us with its long line of automotive collaborations, and Tag Heuer has shown us with endless photos of Steve McQueen wearing the classic Monaco model (hey, use it if you got it), there’s a yawning overlap in the Venn Diagram between watch enthusiasts and gearheads. So, there is clearly a market for a watch with explicit ties to a classic racing car like this.

And Bulova has given us a handsome design with the Limited Edition Shelby Racer. The polished stainless steel case and mirror polish dial is intended to match the exterior of the car it honors. To hammer the point home, the Shelby cobra logo is present on the 6 o’clock subdial. With the exception of the 3-6-9 cardinal points, each hour marker is given an applied minutes designation (e.g., “60” at 12 o’clock, “25” at 5 o’clock, etc.). The caseback is an opaque glass insert that highlights both the Daytona Coupe logo as well as the Bulova logo.

This Limited Edition piece does not specifically call back to any of Bulova’s historical models. The cushion case/tonneau style has echoes of the Bulova 1971 Chronograph D. There’s even some similarity with Bulova’s 1970 Deep Sea Chronograph (references 31000-3W and 31001-1W) as well as the 1970 Deep Sea Chronograph A (reference 31002-9W). But, to Bulova’s credit, they don’t seem to be simply pulling from their catalogue here but rather creating something new that is inspired by their past.

For those who insist on only adding handwound or automatic movements to their collection, be advised that this piece uses a quartz movement. But as with automatic movements, not all quartz movements are created equal. Grand Seiko, wonderful as it is, does not have a monopoly on interesting quartz movements. Indeed, Bulova has a history of creating truly special quartz movements, perhaps the Accutron most famously. Inside this Limited Edition piece is Bulova’s NP20 high-precision quartz movement. It is eight times more accurate than a standard quartz movement, meaning it loses only seconds per year.

One more note on the movement: as our friends at Caliber Corner have noted, Bulova has been owned by Citizen since 2008. Citizen owns Miyota, which is who actually makes the NP20 movement, although it is specially tuned for use in Bulova’s high performance quartz pieces.

If you’re looking to purchase the Limited Edition Shelby Racer, it’ll set you back $1,425. That price includes the watch on a steel bracelet, an additional padded leather strap, and a 1/24 silver-plated model of the Shelby Daytona Coupe. The watch itself has a 40.5 mm case and a 22mm lug width. The sapphire crystal has anti-reflective coating and the watch is listed as water resistant to 100m.