Shinola Canfield Speedway Watch

Detroit watchmaker, Shinola, are one of our favourite brands here at Coolector HQ and their latest limited edition release is one of their most visually impressive to date. The Shinola Canfield Speedway Watch is the brand’s first chronograph with an automatic movement and it comes souped up with a tachymeter—a scale on the bezel that converts time elapsed into speed travelled. So whether it’s a Daytona mile or a Le Mans kilometre, you can always track who’s fastest.

The Shinola Canfield Speedway Watch is billed as the brand’s most technical and complicated timepiece to date. The 44mm Canfield Speedway is for sure our ‘bona fide hotrod’ with a Swiss-made SW510 movement, which is housed in a polished stainless steel case, which is no ordinary engine. From the Greek tachos metron – speed measure — a tachymeter is an algebraic shortcut engineered specifically for speed freaks.

Need For Speed

The Canfield Speedway Watch from Shinola has a price tag of $2995 and takes its design inspiration from vintage American racing and stock cars of the 1920’s and iconic mechanics of the era like Louis “Red” Vogt. Legend has it Red knew his craft so well, he didn’t need to use callipers — he could measure by eye and hand. From schooling Big Three auto engineers to building faster engines for moonshine runners, these master mechanics knew there was really no such thing as a finish line — only the next lap. And next time it would be faster, lighter, better.

In a departure from Shinola’s traditional watch box, the Canfield Speedway ($2995) comes enclosed in a red toolbox similar to those that were regularly used by the likes of Red Voght. With an engravable badge and metal tray insert, the Speedway’s packaging is a race-ready companion unlike any other and adds a pleasing touch of authenticity to proceedings that we’re loving here at Coolector HQ.

This beautiful watch is about the colourful and courageous origins of American stock car racing – like when Daytona Beach actually happened on the beach and Shinola were in search for the spirit of the craftsmen and mechanics that pushed their creative limits and brought people together with the beauty and excitement of their work. A breathtaking timepiece that, truth be told, we’re pretty obsessed with here at The Coolector.