9 new motorsport watches to get you into the F1 Singapore Grand Prix spirit

This year, the Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix 2026 returns to the Marina Bay Street Circuit from October 9 to 11, bringing the world’s fastest racing series back under the floodlights for the original F1 night race. There is even more track action in store, with Singapore hosting an F1 Sprint for the first time.

And where there is Formula 1, watches are rarely far behind.

The relationship between luxury watches and motorsport stretches back decades, but the latest crop of racing-inspired watches goes well beyond putting a team logo on the dial. Ahead of the competition, here are six of the year’s most interesting new creations.

IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph 41 Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team

This standout creation isn’t just made to mark the 2026 race at Marina Bay; its colour also pays tribute to Singapore. For the first time in IWC’s Pilot’s collection, the dial comes in a rich purple inspired by our national flower, Vanda Miss Joaquim. 

The numerals, indexes, and luminous hands in PETRONAS green connect to IWC’s F1 partner, the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team, while a matching purple rubber strap completes an unusually vibrant take on IWC’s utilitarian Pilot’s Watch aesthetic.

With a 41mm case made from lightweight and heat-resistant Grade 5 titanium, which is also used for Formula 1 engine components and the Halo safety structure, the watch offers a weight saving of roughly 50 per cent over steel. 

Perfect for trackside, the team’s drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, along with mechanics, engineers, and other personnel will wear it during race days, even staff back at the Brackley headquarters in the UK. While IWC has served as the team’s Official Engineering Partner since 2013, this watch is the fourth official team watch the Swiss watchmaker has created since beginning the series in 2022.

Powering it is the automatic IWC-manufactured Calibre 69385, a 4Hz column-wheel chronograph with a 46-hour power reserve. Elapsed minutes are displayed at 12 o’clock, small seconds sit at 6 o’clock, while a combined day-date indication appears at 3 o’clock. 

The movement is visible through the sapphire caseback, and the model offers 100m water resistance and IWC’s EasX-CHANGE system for tool-free strap swaps.

Chanel J12 Superleggera Caliber 12.1 42mm

Chanel may not have an F1 partnership, but the revived J12 Superleggera earns its place here through one of watchmaking’s more intriguing links to automotive design.

The Superleggera name first appeared at Chanel in 2005, referencing the Italian term for “super light”. It is most famously associated with the lightweight coachbuilding technique developed by Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera, which fashioned some of the 20th century’s most desirable performance cars. 

Looking just the part, this substantial 42mm watch combines highly resistant matte black ceramic with steel and black-coated steel elements. Its black lacquered dial uses two finishes, with circular satin brushing through the centre and a snailed finish around the perimeter. 

Red detailing, including a small red arrow indicating the date at 4 o’clock, provides flashes of colour amid the collection’s signature monochromatic design.

The unidirectional bezel combines blackened steel with a satin-finished hardened-steel ring, while the ceramic bracelet’s central links receive vertical satin brushing framed by polished edges. The oscillating weight also receives its own black coating.

This smouldering J12 is driven by the self-winding Calibre 12.1, manufactured by Kenissi, of which Chanel is a co-owner. COSC chronometer certification, 70 hours of power reserve, and 200m water resistance give it sports-watch credentials.

TAG Heuer Monaco Speed 12

Unveiled at the Monaco Grand Prix and won by driver Max Verstappen this June, this watch could be the year’s most extravagant expression of the relationship between motorsport and TAG Heuer, Official Timekeeper of Formula 1 and a partner of Oracle Red Bull Racing.

The original Heuer Monaco arrived in 1969 as the world’s first square, water-resistant chronograph wristwatch, and was among the earliest commercially available automatic chronographs. Its subsequent association with Steve McQueen cemented its racing credentials.

This Speed 12 deepens that automotive connection further by essentially putting an engine on the wrist. 

Around its open-worked dial sit 12 miniature rotating pistons, inspired by the firing sequence of a 12-cylinder engine. As the central minute hand completes each revolution, one piston returns to its original position while the next rotates 90 degrees to reveal the new hour.

The unusual jumping-hour display is powered by the automatic Calibre TH84-00, developed and produced by La Fabrique du Temps Louis Vuitton from its patented Spin Time architecture.

The construction also highlights the mechanics: vertical grooves through the centre evoke an engine cover, while the skeletonised minute hand recalls an automotive dashboard instrument. 

The 40mm square case is made from Grade 5 titanium, with four black DLC-coated open-worked arches suspending the round movement inside. Water resistance is 30m, and a black rubber strap with textile embossing and red hand-stitching imbues another sporting flourish. Only 50 individually numbered pieces will be made.

Tudor Black Bay Chrono “Carbon 26”

For anyone watching the Singapore Grand Prix, the inspiration behind this sharp “panda” creation should be particularly easy to spot.

Dedicated to Tudor’s partnership with the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula One Team, it follows last year’s “Carbon 25” and continues the idea of creating a team-inspired chronograph for each F1 season. This time, the design pays homage to the 2026 VCARB 03, right down to the flash of yellow found on the car’s engine cowling. 

Racing Bulls drivers Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad are already wearing the watch during the Miami Grand Prix early in the F1 2026 season. 

More than simply borrowing the car’s colours, Tudor translates motorsport’s weight-saving obsession into the watch’s construction. The redesigned 42mm case is fashioned from carbon fibre, as is the fixed one-piece tachymeter bezel and even the end-links attaching its hybrid leather-rubber strap. 

Tudor continues the material through the dial, using carbon-fibre sheets for the contrasting chronograph counters and date-window surround. Against all that carbon sits a domed “racing white” dial punctuated by yellow accents. PVD-finished titanium chronograph pushers provide another lightweight feature, while the strap carries a tyre-pattern motif. 

Inside beats Tudor’s Manufacture Chronograph Calibre MT5813, a COSC-certified automatic movement with column-wheel construction, vertical clutch, and silicon balance spring. Running at 4Hz, it delivers approximately 70 hours of power reserve. Water resistance stands at an impressive 200m.

Production is limited to 2,026 individually numbered pieces.

H. Moser & Cie. Streamliner Alpine Drivers and Mechanics Pink Editions

Most F1 collaborations result in a watch for the driver. H. Moser & Cie. and BWT Alpine Formula One Team asked a more interesting question: What about everybody else?

That produced two complementary Streamliners, refreshed for 2026 in the unmistakable pink of Alpine’s new livery. One is a serious mechanical chronograph made for the drivers; the other is a digital watch conceived as a working tool for the mechanics and paddock personnel.

The Streamliner Alpine Drivers Pink Edition, worn by Pierre Gasly here, is the traditional high horology proposition. Its 42.3mm steel case houses the fully skeletonised automatic HMC 700, developed with Geneva workshop Agenhor. 

The 434-component movement features a column wheel and sophisticated horizontal clutch, while its central flyback chronograph displays both elapsed minutes and seconds. Pink Globolight indices and hands, a blue chronograph hand, and an integrated pink rubber strap link it visually to the 2026 Alpine A526 car. 

Power reserve is at least 72 hours, and water resistance is 120m.

The 42.6mm Streamliner Alpine Mechanics Pink Edition combines analogue timekeeping with a connected digital module developed with tech company Sequent. Its functions include GMT, a perpetual calendar, and a 1/100th-second chronograph, but the clever part is its dedicated Race Mode. 

A SYNC button lets the watch provide upcoming race information, countdowns, and specific team alerts and messages. 

The two editions are paired in 50 presentation sets, while an additional allocation of the Mechanics Pink Edition is available separately to owners of selected earlier Alpine models. 

Richard Mille RM 65-01 Sand Quartz TPT 

Keeping things fresh for the Richard Mille collector, this arresting new colourway arrives for the exceptional RM 65-01, a highly complex chronograph conceived around the precision, resilience, and functionality demanded by motorsport competition.

It introduces Sand Quartz TPT, a golden beige expression of the high-tech silica-based composite that defines Richard Mille’s groundbreaking materials engineering. Built from hundreds of ultra-thin layers before being machined into shape, Quartz TPT production results in distinctive striations that make each case’s surface visually unique. 

Colour coding — in bright green, yellow, and orange — also brings order to the densely packed dial display.

Mechanically, the RM 65-01 bears Richard Mille’s most complicated automatic movement in a series-production model, with five years of development. Its integrated RMAC4 automatic split-seconds chronograph calibre, developed with Vaucher Manufacture Fleurier, runs at 5Hz, or 36,000 vibrations per hour, allowing elapsed times to be measured to one-tenth of a second. 

The split-seconds hand records intermediate times, a feature specific to professional motorsport and F1, while a six-column-wheel architecture and vertical coupling control the chronograph mechanism. Grade 5 titanium forms the baseplate and bridges, and the movement delivers around 60 hours of power reserve.

Richard Mille offers plenty of typical solutions elsewhere. A patented rapid-winding pusher at 8 o’clock can fully wind the barrel in 125 presses, while a function selector operated through the crown switches between winding, date adjustment, and time-setting.

The model also has an interesting recent automotive connection. Last year, Richard Mille extensively reworked the RM 65-01 for the RM 65-01 McLaren W1, a 500-piece limited edition created alongside McLaren’s W1 supercar. 

Girard-Perregaux Laureato Williams Edition 42mm and Laureato Chronograph Williams Edition 42mm

Girard-Perregaux joins the grid with not one but two Laureatos, marking the first watches to emerge from its newly announced partnership with Atlassian Williams F1 Team. And both names hail from the same era: The Laureato debuted in 1975, while Williams began competing in Formula 1 just two years later.

Both 42mm steel watches take their visual cues from the Williams FW48, the team’s 2026 F1 car. The vehicle’s blue appears on the Clous de Paris-patterned dials, while flashes of red echo the car’s keyline. The Williams connection is otherwise relatively restrained, with a discreet “W” at 12 o’clock and the team emblem metallised onto the sapphire caseback.

Both retain the Laureato’s signature octagonal bezel and integrated bracelet, with alternating polished and satin-finished surfaces, plus 100m water resistance.

Sharp and smart, the Laureato Williams Edition 42mm boasts a straightforward time-and-date dial display, powered by the self-winding GP1800 calibre with a minimum 54-hour power reserve.

Its sportier sibling, the Laureato Chronograph Williams Edition 42mm, makes the racing connection more explicit through its ability to measure elapsed time. The three counters are framed by rhodium-plated rings, while red accents enliven the central chronograph seconds and small seconds hands.

Driving it is the automatic GP3300, a 419-component movement running at 4Hz and providing a minimum 46-hour power reserve.