Shinola has made watches about Detroit, about the Apollo program, and about a lake monster. Its newest one is about a sailboat race, and damn, is it good-looking.
The Detroit-based brand is launching the Mackinac Night Race, a limited edition built around the yacht timer — the countdown complication used to time the start of a sailing race, aka one of watchmaking’s more specialized tricks. The name nods to the Great Lakes maritime history the watch draws on (so not technically an official race tie-in).
The dial is forged carbon fiber in black and orange, made under heat and pressure in a process that leaves every piece with its own pattern, so no two dials match. It sits in a sandblasted black PVD case with gunmetal indexes, orange accents, and a black mesh bracelet.
Through an exhibition caseback, you can see the automatic SW511 chronograph movement. It’s designed and assembled in Detroit, serialized, and limited to 500 pieces worldwide at $3,995 — the same run size and price as Shinola’s Mooncraft Monster Chrono, which suggests this is where the brand puts its most technical work.
The whole thing is a lot to look at, in the best way — a square case with an orange carbon dial is a swing, and from what I can see, it lands.
The watches sailing the Mac
I spent two days on the docks at the Chicago Yacht Club for this year’s Race to Mackinac, looking at wrists, and I can tell you exactly how many mechanical yacht timers I found: one.
That was a Rolex Yacht-Master II on a pro sailing for Quantum Sails, gifted to him after a regatta win — and he’d swapped the factory bracelet for rubber, because rubber is better on a wet boat.
Everyone else? Garmins, mostly. The quatix has a regatta timer that syncs to the actual race clock, and it was the closest thing to a standard on that dock. Then a Timex Ironman a guy’s worn for thirty years. A Victorinox. A Citizen from a man on his 20th Mac.
So a $3,995 mechanical yacht timer named for the Mackinac isn’t exactly a race watch. It’s a watch about the race, for the people who love the Mac, or love Detroit, or love that forged carbon dial, which is a genuinely cool piece of material science regardless.
None of this is a knock. Shinola knows everything has a time and place, and for a watch like this, it isn’t necessarily on the wrist of a guy sleeping in four-hour shifts afloat on Lake Michigan — but I could also see that same guy switching to the Shinola after the race is run.
Where to Buy It
The Mackinac Night Race drops Friday, July 17, direct from Shinola at $3,995. Serialized, 500 pieces worldwide, and the forged carbon dial means yours is literally one of a kind — at that run size, don’t expect it to sit.
