Luxury Watches & Vintage Cars: From Peking to Place Vendôme
Arrival on Place Vendôme © The Watch Lounge
A 14,000 km trip is rarely an enjoyable experience, even by plane. Surely then it is significantly worse by automobile! No, not a modern car, with all its luxury conveniences like you are thinking, but an actual automobile, that brand new mode of transportation invented around 1890! So you can imagine then that when your “automobile” happens to be one of these very early prototypes, just created at the turn of the century, the ride can quickly deteriorate into hell on earth…except for those competing in the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge that is!
On September 10th, 103 teams left the Great Wall of China to commence a 5 week journey that would see them arrive at the Place Vendôme, some 14,360 km further east down the road. Well, “road” may be a bit of a generous description here, as the numerous Rolls-Royces, Alfa Romeos and other automobiles involved only had dust and sand to accompany them along their trip.
© The Watch Lounge
So what’s the connection for The Watch Lounge then?
Well, luxury watch brand Frédérique Constant was the official timekeeper of the event and one of the main sponsors. The brand, which is very actively involved in sponsorship and philanthropic activities (for example we recently attended a dinner with the gorgeous Eva Longoria-Parker for the benefit of her “Eva’s Heroes” organization, which is dedicated to enriching the lives of young people with special needs) made this incredible trip possible. Frédérique Constant is building a strong presence in the classic car & racing sphere, even producing a collection of chronographs made especially made Austin Healey owners, and so it makes sense for the brand to be involved with this exciting event also.
It was kind of a surreal show to watch these dusty, old prestigious automobiles arriving on a lazy Saturday afternoon at one of the most important luxury destinations in Europe, the Place Vendôme, and see them park between Jaeger-LeCoultre, Rolex, and Hublot. The drivers seemed to be quite rested, but were also very happy to have arrived at the end of their journey!
© The Watch Lounge
Even though they had all trained and prepared for this incredible trip, some had a persistent bad luck, such as one Lancia Theta from 1914 which broke its fore axle…5 times. But, instead of complaining, when local inhabitants stopped by to check if everything was OK after they noticed that one of their wheels had decided to keep on rolling on its own into a nearby field, Mr Daniel Ward and Mr David Ingleby, drivers, just answered: “Look at that, aren’t we lucky to have found all the parts!?”. A very special state of mind, indeed. Best of all though was the fact that at the start there were 103 teams in Peking, and at the end in Paris, 5 weeks later? Not a single one less! Hats off!
To celebrate this wonderful event, Frédérique Constant revealed a very special preview (the official announcement is expected during BaselWorld 2011) of two Peking to Paris Chronometers. We were able to snap a quick shot of the prototypes, shown below.
New Frédérique Constant Limited Edition Peking to Paris © The Watch Lounge
The Final Word
This really was a fantastic event, with a great turn-out and a remarkable level of support and commitment from all involved. Let’s hope that others sponsors take note of this challenging race and will join Frédérique Constant next year to allow a new edition in 2011, as this one was only the fourth edition in…103 years!
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Nice watches, true, but the cars are also pretty nice to look at. Reminds me of my dad’s old Jaguar MKV Drophead Coupe. Cars used to be so beautiful back then. The good old days.
Hi LB,
Thanks for your comment. Indeed, some of these cars got back home really destroyed after such a trip from Pekin. That’s why, in my humble opinion, this race is great, as these cars were originally made way back in the century to struggle with the elements – with a minimum of comfort though ! They were tough cars, despite their elegance. And they still are ! I know some modern cars that would not do half of what they did, don’t you think ?
Best,
OM