The Motorsport-Inspired Depancel Serie-P Pista 24 MOTUL Edition

The watch industry is riddled with partnership, some more sensible than others. One of the easiest themes to embrace and collaborate in, and yet also one of the strongest, is the world of motorsports. Timekeeping has played an important factor in any form of racing pretty much from the early days up until now. And even though timekeeping is completely digitialised these days, there’s still something very alluring about a well-executed racing inspired watch. One of the latest offerings, on the affordable side of the spectrum, is the new Depancel Series-P Pista 24 MOTUL Edition.

Depancel is a young French brand fully focused on automotive inspired watches. The name is even derived from three prestigious French car manufacturers: Delage, Panhard, Facel-Vega. Working together with MOTUL, a French lubrication specialist long intertwined with all sorts of racing. The result of these two companies working together is the Depancel Series-P Pista 24 MOTUL Edition. Its name leaves little to the imagination, as it is all about endurance racing (24 referring to hours, Pista referring to race track, etc).

The cushion-shaped stainless steel case measures 42mm across and 12.5mm in height, including the sapphire crystal. It is topped with a bidirectional black PVD coated rotatable bezel with an engraved minute scale with white and red details. On the right-hand side there is a screwed-in crown guard section, also finished in black. On the opposite side we see another black insert with the watch’s identification. The crown has a red ring and a knurled profile for extra grip. Flip the watch over and a transparent caseback reveals the movement.

The dial for the Depancel Series-P Pista 24 MOTUL Edition is finished in black, with a hobnail-like texture. Surrounding the dial is a sloped flange with a white timing track and a red section between 10 and 12. Large applied indices and numerals are filled with luminous material. The hour and minute hands have an open section at the base, with a luminous insert towards the tip. The central seconds hand is finished in red. Spread around the dial are the power reserve indicator (styled like a fuel gauge), an elongated date window, the 24H time display (with lights on/off “indication” and the MOTUL logo.

Dpeancel has outfitted the Series-P Pista 24 MOTUL Edition with the automatic Miyota 9132, a reliable mechanical movement keeping the price of the watch very sensible. We’ve seen it in other watches as well, and it seems to do a god job overall. It uses 26 jewels, runs at a frequency of 28,800vph and provides 40 hours of running time when fully wound. The rotor is decorated with a motif reminiscent of a car’s grill and the Depancel logo.

The Depancel Series-P Pista 24 MOTUL Edition comes on a perforated black leather strap with a red lining and either a pin buckle or folding clasp. As with all Depancel watches it comes with a lifetime warranty and will be sold through pre-orders. During this pre-order phase the watch is priced at EUR 695 instead of the regular EUR 795. The pre-order phase starts on July 26th, at 10 AM (UTC +2).

For more information, please visit Depancel.com