Clifton Club Shelby® Cobra 1964

The Clifton Club Shelby® Cobra collection welcomes two limited edition chronographs, 1964-piece each. Both versions feature an automatic Swiss-made movement (Valjoux 7750). All elements of the design are inspired by the original Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe, and created in collaboration with Daytona designer Peter Brock.

The 44 mm diameter case made of polished and satin-finished stainless steel matches the aerodynamic contours of the timeless Daytona Coupe body shape. In the center is a modern dial available in silver-colored or Daytona blue replete with Arabic numerals, vertical chronograph ringed counters inspired by those of the dashboard highlighted with red touches, day and date displays at 3 o’clock, and a tachymeter scale placed into the flange. The hours and minutes hands shaped as the steering wheel feature Superluminova C1 blue emission, while the Cobra logo created by Peter Brock is forged onto the chronograph’s second hand.

Key functions are activated via exact replicas of the Daytona’s foot pedals. The magic continues with the Daytona’s bold alloy wheel design featured on the oscillating weight. The limited edition number is etched in tribute to the year of this iconic car’s introduction.

Clifton Club Shelby® Cobra 1964

A comfortable and elegant black “automotive carbon-like” calfskin strap with red rubberized soft-touch calfskin lining is standard, offset by an adjustable triple-folding clasp with security push-pieces. Completing the tribute to legendary car and designer are subtle vertical racing stripes on the Clifton Club Shelby® Cobra dial.

The Clifton Club Shelby® Cobra 1964 arrive to its owner in elegant black and silver packaging, and includes an exclusive 1:43 scale model prized by collectors of the Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe. A custom brochure that presents the history of the Daytona Coupe is also provided.

You may expect on something dressier like that to see brightly polished hands – and I can see the allure. After having the blued hands in sight, though, I think they work very well. For starters, it creates a crisp contrast to the white of the dialup, which makes for easy readability. The coloration can also be a bit shifty. This way, I mean it can appear a glowing blue in one light, then shift to an almost-black colour (and it appears darker in most of these photos), which speaks to some dressier piece.On the wrist, that the 68g Baume & Mercier Hampton was a treat. Take special note of that burden, as that’s just about a featherweight when it has to do with automatics (or, possibly, I am just too used to steel dive watches). While the case back is not curved at all, I found the match in my wrist to be great. The alligator strap included some additional texture into the watch, and the signed deployant clasp worked well, and I did not have any issues with it digging into my wrist once I had things sized, which I appreciate. That is something I’ve noticed is a larger problem when you have a deployant onto a strap – it can end up adding unnecessary mass, which then ends up digging into your skin. I believe that the one we reviewed with the blue handset has become the most flexible, since you could easily swap in a brown strap on this and also have a more casual appearance, which makes it more flexibility. Obviously, you could also decide on a version which arrives on the brown strap (in either an automatic or a quartz – the quartz version dropping the price $1100). While apparel watch purists might not agree with me, I really do think that the Baume & Mercier Hampton is a great art deco inspired apparel watch prepared to take on the workplace or a night out with a tux.

Clifton Club Shelby® Cobra 1964