Amidst the recent divisive trend of watchmakers partnering up with companies who own fictional characters, TAG Heuer has just unveiled a collaboration that makes perfect sense. Known for its long history with F1 racing, the Swiss brand serves up its second release in tandem with Nintendo to celebrate everybody’s favorite plumber-turned-driver.
Following last year’s edition of the brand’s Connected smartwatch, which utilized Nintendo’s Mario as a way to gamify health tracking, TAG’s newest pieces are mechanical and themed around the Mario Kart video game, which first launched in 1992 on Super Nintendo. Limited to 3,000 pieces, the 44mm Chronograph version features plenty of Mario design cues, such as the “M” on the crown, the red accents throughout, the black and anthracite checkered pattern on the dial, and the game’s title on the bezel. But most notably, Mario himself is shown driving his race car inside the seconds totalizer at the 9 o’clock spot. Likewise, the 3 o’clock aperture foregoes the typical date numbers in favor of images of the weaponized items from the game, such as a star, banana, or bullet.
The second watch is a Chronograph Tourbillon and is much more limited with only 250 pieces made. Bumping up the case size to 45mm and swapping steel for titanium, the timepiece features much of the same nods to the game as the Chronograph, but this time Mario is driving his car inside the tourbillon itself, moving with the complication as he appears to be evading the spiny shell and bullet behind him.
The TAG Heuer Formula 1 x Mario Kart Limited Edition Chronograph and Chronograph Tourbillon will sell for $4,300 and $25,600, respectively, and will drop on the company’s website on October 20.
