This New Shinola Watch Celebrates The Legacy Of Great Lakes Night Sailing

Limited to 500 timepieces worldwide, the rugged watch toasts to daring exploits with a reimagined yacht timer design.

Swashbuckling feats of daring require a watch that can pass muster, at least in the eyes of Michigan’s own Shinola, as the Detroit watchmaker honors nocturnal Great Lakes sailing with the just-launched Shinola Mackinac Night Race.

Shinola leans fully into the deep maritime roots of its home state with its latest limited-edition watch, a rugged, handsome square-dial timepiece that puts a new spin on the mechanics typically needed to time yacht racing. The debut lines up in expert fashion with the 102nd Bayview Mackinac Race, dubbed “the world’s longest continuously run long distance freshwater yacht race.”

Three different courses on the gorgeous yet daunting lakes span between 204 and 259 nautical miles, starting from southern Lake Huron and ending at traditional Michigan tourist destination Mackinac Island. On balmy or perhaps stormy summer nights at the end of the grueling race, sailors are often greeted by ice-cold beers on the docks and at downtown bar and grill The Pink Pony. The right tools of the trade, Shinola hopes, make the difference on the water and back on dry land.

And while modern sailing competitions might have more in common with Formula 1 than with traditional sailing, there’s a delicate dance to night sailing on the Great Lakes, one that often rewards competitors with an idyllic docking spot on Mackinac Island, famously devoid of cars but packed with raucous spectators as boats roll in.

The new Shinola Mackinac Night Race is a fitting companion to hard-fought hours on the breathtaking lakes, as the Detroit watchmaker and lifestyle brand notes the timepiece is “inspired by centuries of Great Lakes maritime history.” No stranger to its modern heritage, the Shinola Monster lineup also celebrates the mighty yet at-times treacherous Great Lakes , while Shinola also expanded its horizons with a new Shinola Worldtimer GMT this spring.

For those closer to Detroit than Mackinac Island, the brand’s highly recommended, remarkable Shinola Hotel remains a year-round hotspot nearly without peer. The company also debuted its first-ever brand campaign just days ago, spotlighting the flagship Runwell Watch and anchored by a cinematic short film starring and directed by Nicholas Braun in his directorial debut

The latest from the horologist and lifestyle brand boasts a nature-inspired black and orange forged carbon fiber dial, with each design delivering completely unique looks thanks to the use of heat and pressure. Gunmetal indices and orange accents throughout pop in eye-catching fashion against its sandblasted black PVD case, while a black mesh bracelet delivers a mix of sporty-yet-refined style.

Featuring an exhibition caseback with a serialized number, Shinola outfitted the sport watch with an assembled-in-Detroit automatic SW511 chronograph movement, while the traditional 12-o’clock and 6-o’clock markers are replaced by the numerals 60 and 30. In another design swerve, the date window rests at the 9-o’clock marker and a yacht timer sub-dial serves a vibrant dash of both form and function. As the watchmaker notes, just 500 units of this sailing-inspired favorite are available globally for $3,995, making the new Shinola Mackinac Night Race “both a collector’s piece and one of Shinola’s most technically distinctive timepieces to date.” Find out more online and in store via the famed Michigan company now while supplies last.