This British watch is perfect for a summer of motorsport

British watchmaker Omologato is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a new timepiece designed to resemble the sun rising over the world’s most famous endurance motor race.

We're of course talking about the 24 hours of Le Mans, so it’s fitting that the new Arnage 24h GMT is a watch that’s not only named after a corner of the French circuit (and one of the best camping spots, too), but it also has a GMT dial for keeping an eye on two time zones at once.

Omologato founder Shami Kalra says how the pale blue dial colour was chosen after three months of work with the design team. The idea was for the watch to be sky blue, and eventually Pantone 290c was chosen as a colour that’s reminiscent of the clear skies of a June morning over Le Mans.

A further dial detail linking the watch to the Circuit de La Sarthe’s most famous race meeting is a ‘24 Heures’ inscription beneath the centrally-mounted hand.

Kalra also explains how he wanted the dial-to-case ratio to be greater than the 10 percent seen on most other watches. “We wanted this watch to be a statement piece, a piece of jewellery that had a watch dial installed into it,” he says. The result is a watch that is 25 percent case instead of just 10 percent, and gives the effect of a jewel-like dial placed inside a solid block of metal.

The dial, which features a sundial effect, is protected by a sapphire crystal. The second time zone is indicated by a subtle 24-hour dial and arrow-tipped hand, and the watch is driven by a Japanese automatic movement with 41 hours of power reserve – and, of course, 24 jewels.

Priced at £795, the watch is limited to 250 examples, with the first 100 engraved to celebrate Omologato’s tenth anniversary. The Arnage 24h GMT is available with strap colour options of Milan Steel, Italian Black and, fittingly, French Blue.