DESDER founder Fabrizio Nardini completed one of motorsport’s most legendary test during the GT World Challenge powered by AWS weekend at the Nürburgring, taking to the Nordschleife for a lap of the famous ‘Green Hell’ – with the DESDER D001 on his wrist.
The visit was the latest chapter in DESDER’s growing relationship with GT World and gave Nardini another opportunity to experience at close quarters the world of racing that has inspired the Modena-born independent watch brand.
But this time there was something different. Just a short distance from the modern Nürburgring Grand Prix circuit lies the Nordschleife, the extraordinary 20.8-kilometre ribbon of asphalt through the Eifel mountains that has become one of the great reference points in automotive culture.
For Nardini, there was only one thing to do: drive it. With the D001 accompanying him, the lap also meant that DESDER’s first watch had completed its own maiden tour of the Nordschleife.
It was a symbolic milestone for a timepiece conceived from the beginning around a love of cars, engineering and motorsport. The D001 is a triple-axis tourbillon produced in just six unique pieces, conceived as an intersection between mechanical engineering and coach-built design.
“The Nordschleife is one of those places that you think you know because you have seen it so many times in photographs, films and racing, but when you actually drive onto the circuit it is completely different,” said Nardini. “It’s one of those places where you immediately feel the relationship between man, machine, and the limit. For me it was a very special experience because motorsport and cars are fundamental to DESDER.
"Taking the D001 around the Nordschleife for the first time felt almost like a baptism. If you create something inspired by the automotive world, there are certain places it simply has to go, and the Nürburgring is one of them. Every machine is tested here. Cars come to the Nordschleife to prove themselves, so I loved the idea that our first watch should make its first lap of the Green Hell as well. It brings DESDER another little step closer to the world that inspired us.”
DESDER’s relationship with GT World began earlier this season and is intended to bring the Italian watch brand into the environment that provides so much of its inspiration.
Rather than treating motorsport simply as a visual influence, Nardini wants DESDER to truly experience the places, people and machinery behind it. The Nürburgring provided something different again.
“The more time we spend in GT World, the more ideas we have,” added Nardini. “It is not simply about seeing racing cars. It is about understanding why people love this world so much. For me, that is the connection between DESDER and GT racing, and every weekend we spend here makes that relationship stronger.”
Having been through its first encounter with the Green Hell, the DESDER D001 can now add one of motorsport’s most famous circuits to its own developing story. For a watch born from a passion for cars, it was perhaps an inevitable journey.