Porsche - Sangfroid Design Pt.1
This mini blog series aims to document the origins of Sangfroid, the watch which enabled us to start Paceracer in New Zealand.
Influences from music & vintage design such as the 1960’s Riva Super Florida helped create the form of Sangfroid. The 1980’s 911 Porsche is in that list. Feist as well.
1980’s Porsche vehicles were designed…well, before the 1980’s & during them. The design timeframe to the production time frame may have taken years longer than today’s Porsche design team & far less technology was there to assist the spec.
In short, 1980’s Porsches (including the surrounding decades) were very much handcrafted, or what we like to refer to as, hand-produced.
The story of how our Sangfroid wound up in Brad Longworth’s photography shoot - as follows..
Brad knew a guy, who knew a guy, who had a watch & a Porsche. The Porsche he acquired from the deep South & the watch, well, it’s a Paceracer. Brad realised the Porsche now resided in Auckland with Lance, a fellow Paceracer Partisan, and Brad could not help himself with testing some new sponsored lighting equipment. During the shoot at Piha, Brad noticed Lance’s beloved Sangfroid while driving his beloved 1981 911sc Porsche.
From there the rest is history & Brad has documented far more of just this Paceracer Sangfroid in this Porsche on Lance.
You’ll soon see more of how we make watches, through Brad’s camera lens.
The 1980’s decade of Porsche frame a very specific form.
The front bonnet, headlights, side profile, rear & wheels really, really made it difficult to improve on if you remove the ability for designers to continually ad frills to the aesthetic over the decades due to new technologies.
Tough love as a car designer today.
Pieced together by fortunate technicians, above you can see a factory, much simpler than todays. These Porsche’s pictured, are likely still driving.
The simplicity of the intersections of materials, can be truly admired at a closer glance. Complex curved forms, run into the circular headlights, obscured to seamlessly meet the two V lines running from the Windshield down the bonnet to the front edge.
Possibly one of the finer pieces of Industrial Design surface detailing. The magic is often skipped in isolation, but thankfully can be admired by the hugely pronounced & upright headlights. Perfectly embedded into the body, allowing a backward extrusion of the headlight profile to extend all the way to the end of the car shape, from the side elevation.
Clearly an exquisite form of joy. For decades, the 1980’s Porsche form has captivated designers, drivers, image capturers & lovers.
Sangfroid Automatic Watch Range
Sangfroid was designed over 5 years ago.
The brief to create Sangfroid entailed simplicity, but not at the expense of boredom.
Above are two evolutions of Sangfroid, both automatic, with high-end Swiss manufactured mechanisms.
The Phosphor Bronze cushion case Sangfroid 78 model is the latest addition to the Sangfroid range.
Pricing for 78’ in Marine Steel will increase after January 15th.
Introductory price offer for a limited time.
Brad Longworth
View more of Brad’s work here:
https://bradlongworth.com/automotive
Brad Longworth is a photographer from England based in Auckland. His passion for photography comes through in the adventure style of action packed content he creates.
Thanks Brad for shooting these photos, it worked out well for this article we’d been intending to write about Porsche design language of the 1980’s. Looking forward to working on more projects with you.
We had the pleasure of hosting a variety of Industrial Designers, Mechanical Engineers & Architects from the local industry at the Paceracer Studio.
Thank you Stella Artois for supplying refreshments for the monitored event.
Stella Artois is kept chilled at the Studio for client visits, not to forget coffee & more..