Clinton PVD Chronograph, 1970s

Dealer description — Analog/Shift

It’s not every day that a truly original watch rears its head. The Porsche Design Chronograph from Orfina, however, is one such timepiece. Designed by none other than Ferdinand Alexander ‘Butzi’ Porsche (creator of the 911), it was a technological marvel released in the very midst of the Quartz Crisis. Available in stainless steel, it was perhaps more famously seen in black PVD-coated steel, making it the first commercially available timepiece to feature such a ‘blacked-out’ treatment. Porsche Design, Butzi’s design studio, would later partner with IWC on timepiece production, but its earliest watches were produced by Orfina. This particular take on the Porsche Design Chronograph, however, is arguably even more interesting: Signed "Clinton" on the dial but "PD" on the bracelet, it's likely that it was sold in the American market by Clinton Watch Company but still fitted with a Porsche Design bracelet — which was itself produced by Orfina or IWC. That's quite a mashup of horological history, and demonstrative of the way watchmaking relationships worked before the prevalence of in-house production. Dating to the 1970s, the watch is housed in a 41mm black PVD-coated stainless steel tonneau case with a signed crown, a mineral crystal, dual barrel pushers, and a smooth bezel. It features a matte black tritium dial with an inner tachymeter bezel, luminous indices, a 1/5th-seconds track, a matching, modified ‘sword’ handset, a triple-register chronograph, and a day-date display. Paired to a matching, PVD-coated folded 'H-link' bracelet with a Porsche Design-signed blade clasp, it’s powered by the Lemania 5100, perhaps one of the most significant and interesting automatic chronograph calibers ever developed. It’s a rare occurrence when one has the opportunity to snag such a cool model. You know what we’re gonna say: Don’t sleep on it!