SPOTLIGHT ON: Grand Carrera GMT Calibre 8 Singapore GP Limited Edition

WAV5114.XXXXXX

I've posted about a couple of Singapore Grand Prix Limited Editions before, there was a Formula 1 piece and also a Monaco, both of which featured a black and green colour scheme as seen here on this Grand Carrera from 2008. Limited to 150 pieces this one features a black bezel (the case remains steel), a green running second hand, a black GMT dial and a reversed date (white on black rather than black on white).

The watch was released to celebrate the Singapore GP in 2008, and F1's first night race. It proved to be a very memorable race with Fernando Alonso taking a surprise victory after his team-mate Nelson Piquet Jnr deliberately crashed and caused a safety car, and later on championship leader Felippe Massa was released early from his pit stop and set off down the pit lane with the refuelling hose still attached to his car...

I must say I am a bit of a sucker for the green and black colour scheme on these Singapore GP watches, the stitching on the leather strap looks fantastic and I think it's really great that they haven't gone too far with it. By that I mean they haven't felt the need to have green hour markers or made the GMT wheel green, that would have been OTT, sometimes less really is more and the scheme as it is works superbly on this watch.

The only thing I'm not 100% sure about is the black bezel. It looks good, but the bezel is the part of the watch must susceptible to scratches and so I'm not sure that coating it in PVD is the greatest move from a practical standpoint. I have actually managed to find one of these for sale on the internet for just under $4000, but the watch is unworn and is being offered at just below it's official retail price of SGD 7550, so I guess it's fair enough. By way of comparison, I believe the list price of the standard WAV5111 was around the £3400 mark, so it's not a huge premium for the limited edition.

To be honest I don't think this picture does it any justice, but these GMT Grand Carreras seem to be notoriously difficult to photograph well and they definitely look much better from some angles then others. I would definitely like to catch sight of one of these to check it out, although how likely that is here in the UK I don't know, but then who would have guessed a Chinese special edition Lady Link would turn up at Bicester Village? You just never know...

One more thing to look out for, apparently the watch was supplied with a book detailing the history of the Singapore Grand Prix which was written by Eli Soloman and titled 'Snakes and Devils'.