The new Legend 60s

Optimum readability

To make sure that there’s no danger of confusing the time with the chronograph reading, the chronograph’s central hand is red. The same colour is also used for two other critical indications on any racing chronograph: the tachymeter and the pulsometer, designed to measure the driver’s heart rate.

The dial must be as sober and minimalist as possible in order to remain legible; with this in mind, Depancel has designed a clever tachymeter bezel occupying three-quarters of the circle, while the pulsometer nestles in the remaining quarter (from 1 o’clock to 3 o’clock).

The respective scales of these dials have been carefully thought out, too: the pulsometer goes up to 150, plus a red zone if the heart rate reaches 200bpm. The tachymeter scale runs from 0 to 200 km/h, the usual Formula One performance range in the Sixties. It too features a final red zone extending to 240 km/h – usually best avoided.

To protect the timepiece, Depancel has designed a ‘glass box’ sapphire crystal: a raised dome with a vertical profile where it fits onto the bezel, the customary design used in the 1960s to avoid obscuring any information on the dial. To facilitate night-time visibility, the hour and minute hands sport luminous coating. The 30-minute counters (at 3 o’clock) and the small seconds hand (at 9 o’clock) sweep over sky-blue counters that make the most of all available light to ensure perfect readability.

For this pre-order launch, the first 240 copies of each dial will be individually numbered and delivered in a collector’s edition accompanied by a poster signed by the brand’s founder. It will be available on Tuesday March 28, 2023 on the watch brand’s website, www.depancel.com/en.