FORZO has an undeniable passion for motor racing which they fuse into the DNA of every racing watch they design. The brand FORZO doesn’t just look like a racing-inspired watch but is endorsed by motorsport legends like Carl Fogarty, DirtFish and Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, who have all collaborated on their own watch collections for the brand.
Taking its range of racing chronographs in a new direction, FORZO is set to release a fully mechanical version of its popular series of Drive King's, complete with a manual wind and bright new colourways inspired by the legendary race cars of the '60s and '70s, such as viper green, fluorescent orange, and vibrant blue
The green you might recognise from the iconic Lamborghini Miura, for example, which adopted a similar shade. The Miura, styled by Italy’s Marcello Gandini, was a car that set new standards when it came to engineering and design. Launched in 1967, the car shot to popular fame when it was used in the opening sequence of the 1969 film: “The Italian Job”.
Many of these original hues took inspiration from each country’s traditional racing colours, which became a hallmark of racing during the golden age. France, for example, was represented by blue – with teams and makes such as Matra and Ligier – whereas Britain was naturally green (although a much darker green as seen on the Miura).
All of those colourways are represented in our new FORZO Drive King mechanical range, along with a classic pale gold. Black and gold is one of the classic colour schemes in motorsport, typified by the John Player Special-based Lotus cars in particular, which is the key reason why FORZO wanted to include it as well. It was in black and gold JPS Lotus cars that legendary drivers such as Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna made their names, thanks also to the engineering genius of Colin Chapman, who put in place a culture of innovation and excellence that meant Lotus became a benchmark in competition.
Whichever of the four colours you choose, there’s a beautiful contrast with the black panda sub dials: a classic design that’s truly redolent of the era, when drivers and teams needed to have as much information as possible on a wristwatch.
FORZO is a brand that’s driven by passion and authenticity, which is why they have been very careful researching what was real and popular at the time. So the Drive King Mechanical range has all the hallmarks of vintage watches from the 1960s, but with modern reliability that comes from the ever-popular Seagull movement, which is actually based on an original Swiss design from many years ago.
FORZO took inspiration from some of the great motorsport chronographs that were used for driving in the 60s and beyond, such as the Enicar Sherpa Graph – to name but one example – but updated the concepts for people to now enjoy the best of both worlds.
The FORZO mechanical Drive King watches come fitted with a 5-link stainless steel bracelet, or a bespoke rally-style textured rubber strap to differentiate them even further and adding to the period look. The power reserve is around 40 hours, meaning that one full wind should suffice for a couple of days. However, in our experience, people enjoy the process of winding a watch every day, feeling the movement at work through their fingertips and forming a special bond with their timepiece.
The 40mm Mechanical Drive King is available to pre-order now featuring a special introductory discount, with the first watches due for delivery in late October.
This is an unashamedly retro watch, which encapsulates everything that was great about the golden age of motoring.
