It has become a truism that people who like interesting cars usually like interesting watches. But the marriage between horology and the automobile that nowadays seems as natural as the pairing of horse and carriage is nothing new. In fact, it has been a 'thing' for more than a century.

It was way back in 1918 that a young watchmaker called Georges Schaeren kick-started the car watch trend when he launched his Mido dial name in Biel in 1918. He had the ingenious idea of designing watches in the shape of radiator surrounds to demonstrate allegiance to a particular marque, with his first and most successful creation being a horseshoe-shaped Bugatti watch featuring a winding crown at 12 o'clock to mimic a radiator cap. 

 

Heuer Carrare Mido Bulgatti and Richard Mille RM 11-03 McLaren cut out car designed watches for A Collected Man London

Three periods of cars influencing the design of watches.

 

The sales psychology was brilliant, because only extremely wealthy people could afford cars, meaning Schaeren could attach hefty price tags to his watches - and the drivers all wanted one because they liked to be able to demonstrate that they owned a prestigious, sporting car even when they weren't behind the wheel.

Surviving examples of the Mido Bugatti watch are now highly collectable (one fetched Euros 35,700 at an Artcurial auction in Paris in 2013) but, as the popularity of motoring burgeoned, so more watches dedicated to driving began to appear. During the 1920s, brands including Craftsman, Cartier and Patek Philippe developed wristwatches with side-mounted dials designed to enable a driver to keep holding the steering wheel while checking the time. 

Vacheron Constantin, meanwhile, came up with a more elegant solution in the form of a 1921 model with a diagonally-placed dial and a winding crown in the top right corner of its cushion-shaped case. The design was first reprised in 2009 as the Historiques American 21 and the 'driver's watch' story was (of course) resurrected to promote it.