We are fully in race-car-watch-season, and Bulova is joining the pack with their newest release. The New York company is back at it with Carroll Shelby Licensing for a new limited-edition chronograph.
This one’s the Shelby Racer, built around the 50th Anniversary Aluminum Edition Daytona Coupe. That’s the aluminum-bodied version of the car that made Shelby the only American manufacturer to win the FIA Sports Car World Championship in 1965. (If you’ve seen Ford v Ferrari, you already know the rivalry — that movie covered Shelby’s Le Mans campaign a year later, but the Daytona Coupe is where the beef with Ferrari actually started.)
Back to the design: the high-polish stainless steel case wraps a mirror-polished dial meant to echo the Coupe’s aluminum body, chronograph subdials take cues from the car’s dashboard gauges, and the split-finish steel bracelet mimics the Daytona Coupe’s double racing stripes.
There’s also a brown padded leather strap in the box for anyone who wants a more classic look — that’s a move I, personally, am a big fan of.
Under the hood, it’s running Bulova’s proprietary high-precision quartz movement at 262kHz, with a sweeping chronograph hand and running seconds. The watch ships in a Shelby-branded box alongside a 1:24-scale silver-plated model of the Racer car itself.
Bulova and Shelby’s next lap
This isn’t Bulova’s first time out with Shelby. The brand put out a GT500-inspired chronograph for its 150th anniversary last year, and now it’s circling back with a different car from the same universe.
Bulova’s been among the loudest “Made in America” voices in a watch world that’s been mostly Swiss-dominated since 1875, and the Shelby partnership plays right into that identity. This is the same company whose Accutron movement once guided astronauts and satellites through space in the ’60s — precision engineering has always been the brand’s calling card, not just heritage marketing.
These days, under Citizen’s ownership, Bulova’s carved out a lane as the accessible entry point into serious watchmaking, a brand you can graduate to before you start shopping Swiss. The Shelby collab, with the American muscle-car swagger, fits that positioning well.
Where to buy it
The Limited-Edition Shelby Racer is available now at authorized Bulova retailers and on Bulova.com for $1,425. Given the limited nature of Shelby collaborations like this, I wouldn’t sit on it too long if it catches your eye.
