Post time for the 143rd running of the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown, is set for 6:46 on Saturday, May 6. Longines, the Swiss watch brand most associated with timing equestrian sports, continues its tradition as not only the official timekeeper of the race but as the maker of the watch handed out to the winners. The team behind last year’s winning horse, Nyquist, were awarded Longines Master Collection watches (click here for WatchTime’s live report from Derby Weekend 2016). The previous year, the owners, jockey, and trainer of eventual Triple Crown champion American Pharoah galloped away with a Longines Conquest Classic Moonphase (the same watch we reviewed during that year’s Derby experience; click here for the story). So which Longines timepiece will be presented in the winners’ circle this year"
Appropriately enough, this year’s Derby winners will receive the Longines Conquest 1/100th Horse Racing, a new chronograph created with the timekeeping needs of equestrian sportsmen in mind. The timepiece traces its inspiration to an 1878 pocketwatch ? now among the historical exhibits at the Longines Museum ? that famously featured an engraving of a jockey and his mount on the caseback and was built to time speeds to the nearest second. The modern watch ? which can record time measurements to a much more precise 1/100th second ? calls out to trainers, jockeys, and prospective owners who are i...