Luminescent hands; calendar functionality; turning bezel; water-resistant case. 3 year limited warranty. Collectible tin box included.
The look of this Corvette watch captures the design brilliance of the first Corvettes.
The success of the early Corvette is the best work of some of the most inspired design minds in automotive history. It's good fortune that these minds were roughly in the same place at the same time.
The first Corvette had the name of a fast World War II war ship. It had a sleek, rounded body, a trendy exquisite-looking wraparound windshield and “jet-pod” taillights. It was designed under the direction of legendary GM styling chief Harley Earl and looked totally unlike any Chevy ever built.
Of course, Chevrolet had never built a sports car, and didn’t seem to quite know what it was doing. It lacked the comfort and features people might have expected in an American sports car.
It took awhile for things to get sorted out. 1955 production was so dismal, the Corvette would have been dropped if rival Ford had not successfully introduced the Thunderbird two-seater that year.
Lucky for GM they put a talented expatriate Russian auto engineer and sports car racer named Zora Arkus-Duntov in charge of the 1956 Corvette. He soon began transforming the Vette into something more desirable.
The revised car got a gorgeous body and features comfort-minded Americans expected, such as roll-up windows, push-button outside door handles and a lift-off hardtop.
Chevy called the 1956 Corvette “America’s only true sports car,” which was correct. The T-Bird was a softer two-seater–an upper-middle-class sporty car for your wife or girlfriend.
By 1962, under the guidance of the savvy Arkus-Duntov, the Corvette had become a fast, profitable, race-winning model that helped give Chevy a sporty image.
Meanwhile, colorful new GM styling chief Bill Mitchell bought a nifty but hastily developed Corvette-powered SS (Super Sport) race car tht Arkus-Duntov had created for the famous 1957 sports car race in Sebring, Fla.
GM banned racing activities after Sebring, but Mitchell felt that the ‘Vette should have a racing heritage. He got around the ban by using his own money and that of friends to create and race a new version of the SS.
Brilliant stylist Larry Shinoda came up with a rakish fiberglass body for the SS chassis. Mitchell, a deep-sea fisherman, initially called the topless race car the “stingray” after the colorful fish of that name.
Mitchell had Arkus-Duntov and key Chevy engineers mechanically develop the car — called the “Sting Ray Special” and “Mitchell Sting Ray.” (It never was raced as a “Corvette” or under the GM flag.) He then hired Dr. Dick Thompson (nicknamed the “flying dentist”) to race it, ostensibly as a private entry because of the GM ban.
The talented Thompson won the Sports Car Club of America’s C-Modified national championships with the car in 1959 and 1960. But it was the auto’s beauty that captured the most attention.
The elated Mitchell turned his race car into an auto show car and exhibited it at big shows across the country to get the public accustomed to the similar shape of the sensational new 1963 production Sting Ray.
Showgoers were captivated by the car’s appearance, which led Chevy to keep the general body shape for the upcoming ‘Vette model.
Despite a tight budget, Arkus-Duntov made the Sting Ray unlike any other production auto for a reasonable price. Mitchell insisted the Sting Ray have retractable headlights with covers so the front end would resemble his race car’s streamlined front end.
The new Corvette came as a convertible and — for the first time — as a coupe. Mitchell insisted the coupe have a unique vertically split rear window, with a divider bar, to enhance its styling. Arkus-Duntov hated the window because the bar severely hindered vision.
But the influential Mitchell got what he wanted, and the 1963 “split-window” ‘Vette coupe has become legendary.
